Sanderson Jones, the face-to-face funnyman

"My influences are Chris Morris, Peter Cook and Harry Hill but also Karl Lagerfeld and Lady Gaga," the bearded 30-year-old explains. "I love people who just have an idea and go out and create it."

He premiered the show, which he came up with after splitting from his girlfriend, at this summer's Edinburgh Festival and found that meeting his public beforehand created a unique bond. "People feel special. They have a genuine commitment to the show." And they feel even more special when Jones mentions them onstage.

On first meeting his fans, Jones notes their names, and via friends and the internet - a mild obsession - he unearths facts about them to incorporate in his act.

In one breathtaking revelation at Edinburgh, he announced that a man in the crowd had pushed his girlfriend off a balcony. "Don't worry, she was OK. They were in a club and he went to hug her and they fell ..." Then there was the spontaneous left-handed yoghurt-eating competition triggered by a tweet. And, naturally, he screens embarrassing pictures that his audience have posted on the web. He is particularly fond of bad fancy-dress outfits. "It's amazing what people upload, forgetting that strangers can see it."

Jones is an unashamed geek and one of a number of comedians who revel in ripping up the stand-up rulebook. "I love Demetri Martin, who uses Venn diagrams. In fact, I say if you love Venn diagrams you'll enjoy my show."

Another kindred spirit is Dave Gorman, who is famous for his globetrotting quests. But Jones relies on surfing as much as shoe leather: "Someone called it digital comedy but it is also about building a sense of community. Before the gig I've invited ticket holders to pub quizzes so that

everyone gets to know everyone. I want to do something where getting to the show is part of it. There will never be another show like it." Social media can disconnect us physically. Jones uses it to connect.

This was not the career that Jones expected. His father is an accountant and his mother was a lawyer. He grew up in Belgium before attending Peter Cook's alma mater, Radley, in Oxfordshire. His mother died when he was 10 and his first show was all about coming to terms with her death. His father remarried but his stepmother "ran off with her plastic surgeon".

At Bristol University he studied history and did not get involved in comedy. Instead he went into sales, advertising English pubs in France. This led him into various internet start-up businesses and from there he got into performance, firstly working on an interactive project creating haunted houses for Punchdrunk Theatre Company's Felix Barrett. Comedysale.com is the culmination of all of these exploits. "There's the saying, if you can't sell them one product, there's always another."

He may not have made his fortune yet - he supplements his income as a film critic for The Lady - but he certainly has no lack of ambition. "I've just been speaking to the Sydney Opera House about doing Comedysale there. The manager was very helpful. She said if I don't mind a Sunday I could have the main 2,000-seat auditorium, although the Australian National Ballet performs there and I'd probably have to do it in front of their set. I thought, no problem, that would be awesome!"

comedysale.com is at the Union Chapel, N1, tonight. To arrange to buy tickets, contact Sanderson Jones on Twitter @comedysale or email sanderson@comedysale.com