“What’s worse than police brutality? The Police discography.”

Sting & Co. weren’t the only brunt of the rock ‘n’ roll jokes when Neil Hamburger began – and ended – his EU tour before Christmas in the Dublin Sugar Club.

“Ireland normally gets tacked on to the UK, which obviously has its historical difficulties, so I thought I’d give your wonderful country its own European tour. That and Aer Lingus had some really cheap fares,” confides Hamburger, AKA Gregg Turkington, who also has a pathological hatred of Anthony Kiedis, The Grateful Dead and the legend-aiiiiiiiiry Gene Simmons who he considers to be evil incarnate.

He’s altogether keener on R.E.M. whose Athens, Georgia hometown venue, The 40 Watt, was one of the stopoffs on the American leg of his tour.

Can you still feel their presence there?

“No, I think their spirit has finally left the venue,” he rues, “but it’s a really nice venue and has a comfortable green room, which beats having to change into your tuxedo in the gentleman’s toilets or in your car parked two blocks away, both of which I’ve done on numerous occasions.”

Fans of musical curios that he is, has Greg heard Monkees legend Micky Dolenz’s new R.E.M. covers EP?

“Yeah, I think it’s great. Micky is a modern miracle because his voice never seems to age. He’s obviously a funny guy but also one of my favourite singers.”

Lockdown rewatching of The Sopranos completed, I worked my way through all 58 episodes of The Monkees TV show, which has really stood the test of time.

“From the casting of the guys to the writing and directing, that show was so well put together,” Gregg agrees. “The final episode has one of my all-time heroes, Tim Buckley, in it. Micky introduces him and he comes out and sings a song, which is crazy but in keeping with the anarchic feel of the show.”

Of course, Neil Hamburger’s talents aren’t confined to standup with his thirteenth album, Seasonal Depression Suite, available in all good record shops – and some crap ones too – now. A concept piece about him being trapped in a really shitty hotel over Christmas, it includes guest turns from such musical admirers as Neil Finn, Bonnie Prince Billy, Nancy Sinatra’s daughter A.J. Lambert and Bow Wow Wow legend Annabella Lwin who was Malcolm McLaren’s pop-punk plaything after the Sex Pistols imploded.

“She’s just an incredible frontwoman and person,” he gushes. “I sent Anabella the song and said, ‘We wrote this for you, are you up for it?’ and fortunately she was because otherwise we’d have scrapped it.

“Some of the things Malcolm did were definitely unsavoury – she was this kid who’d never performed in public before but somehow she managed to dominate those songs. You don’t get too many 14-year-olds who can do that with so much poise and power.”

Gregg’s non-Neil activities also include reprising the role of Dale in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania.

“Being in something so divorced from my ordinary routine is really good fun,” he enthuses. “It helps that Peyton Reid, the director, is a great guy to hang out with. He’s trying to bring some other elements into these movies and I guess I’m lucky enough to be one of them. And then Paul Rudd is also the sort of sweet, kind person you don’t normally get in that industry. They let me improvise which isn’t the usual thing in a Marvel movie. Paul and me would do those scenes just making shit up and they took what they liked out of it.”

The Holy Grail for most American comedians is Saturday Night Live but not Gregg/Neil.

“I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with Saturday Night Live,” he winces. “I feel like any random conversation you’d have is going to be funnier than an episode of Saturday Night Live. I don’t think my aspirations are the same as most comedians. I just want to do what it is I do and reach the people who want to be reached with it.”

For a man whose career has been based on pushing the boundaries of good/bad taste, Neil Hamburger now finds himself in the strange position of being considerably less offensive than the 45th President of the United States of America.

“Yeah, definitely,” Gregg nods. “I think a pile of dog shit is less disgusting than Donald J. Trump.”

• Neil Hamburger’s Seasonal Depression Suite is out now on Drag City.