Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr don't immediately seem to occupy much shared ground. The former is a large, hairy, affable Cornishman, a sort of cross between Chewbacca and The Wurzels, while the latter is a bespectacled, high-camp Mancunian with sharp dress sense and an even sharper tongue. But these two men are at the forefront of a new wave of young performers who represent the future of British comedy.

They are also set to play yin to the other's yang as co-presenters of Channel 4's raucous vehicle for new comic talent, The Friday Night Project. The pair of them took time off from the arduous business of becoming hugely famous to reveal their thoughts on success, failure, and how not to address The A-Team's Mr T...

Let's start with names. Justin, why the three names? Are you secretly a toff?

JLC: (laughs) No I'm not. Lee's just a middle name. I just think it sounds better - if your middle name's Lee you've just got to use it. Jamie Lee Curtis, Tommy Lee Jones - you've got to use the Lee. Johnny Lee Miller - there's another. Rachel Leigh Cook - even though she spells it wrong. I prefer a double 'e'. It's more real, it's more working class, it's more honest. And it's more manly, and I'm 110% man. If I think of any more I'll just chuck them in.

Alan, do you find people ever confuse you with the stop-smoking guru of the same name?

AC: Yeah, that certainly happens. I get a lot on my website, www.alancarr.net. I got invited to Japan by a Dr Wu, who wanted me to talk about nicotine addiction. And anyone who's ever seen my website - well, it's the campest thing you've ever seen. My head's in bubbles, and you click on it and I take my glasses off. So why someone would think he was actually a proper no-smoking guru is beyond me. I should have gone, really, and just done it. 'Well you did ask me!' But I wasn't that cruel.

Anyone who's ever been to a comedy club knows what a tough business starting out in comedy can be. What on earth possessed you to want to go down that road?

JLC: It certainly is tough, yeah. I was at college to do performing arts, and just spending all my time mucking about, and I remember the lecturers there thought that I would be pretty good at doing stand up, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I only ever saw it as a door-opener, really. I hoped it would open a few doors for me, and it did, so it was good.

So are you really a frustrated actor?

JLC: Absolutely. I'm just generally hugely frustrated, I'm a very, very frustrated man. I'm just a ball of pent-up frustration. No, I'd love to do acting, really. But it'd definitely have to be comedy. I can't do serious. It's completely beyond me.

Besides which, you don't really have the accent for Shakespeare...

JLC: And I hate Shakespeare. I think Shakespeare's rubbish.

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