Ben Elton enters the restaurant talking and barely pauses for breath over the next two hours. Clearly time has not wearied the 60-year-old whose 1987 debut comedy album was titled Motormouth.

We're meeting at Bib & Tucker, right on the beach in North Fremantle. It's one of those perfect West Australian late-summer Sunday afternoons – 33 degrees, blinding blue sky, sun glittering on the ocean. This is a regular haunt for Elton, whose home is a stone's throw away, and he breezes in wearing a short-sleeved blue shirt and shorts, orders a beer and is cracking jokes at his own expense within 60 seconds of sitting down at the balcony table.