I'M delighted to announce that my brand new one woman show, Michelle McManus' Reality Reloaded will be part of this year's Glasgow Comedy Festival line up

And I'm utterly thrilled.

I had never even considered writing a one woman show before, never mind actually performing it live on stage but back in April 2013 and thanks to a bucket load of alcohol that was all about to change.

I had been performing at one of the loveliest little pubs in existence at the time owned by my darling friend Jimmy Quinn on Dublin Street in Edinburgh to help raise funds for the Waverley Care charity.

The pub was called the New Town Bar and afterwards myself and the staff sat and had a few drinks, well more than a few drinks, and it wasn't long before they were asking me all about my time on Pop Idol and they were requesting I retell various stories that had happened to me in the 11 years since, even though they'd heard them a million times before.

This always baffled me because they knew the punchline line and could practically re-enact the stories word perfect but they always reacted like it was the first time they'd ever heard it which I loved.

Then all of sudden lovely Stephen Martin, the manager, jumped off his seat and said: "That's it, you're going to write all of these stories down and perform them right here in the bar at the Edinburgh Festival this year."

I laughed really loudly as I thought he was joking but quickly realised he was, in fact, deadly serious.

At first I was dismissing it completely, I mean there was no way I could ever tell my little stories in front of strangers never mind charge them for it.

But as the wine continued to flow I eventually agreed to it and that's how it all began.

I knew I could never completely do it on my own, so I contacted one of the funniest men I know for help and luckily for me he agreed.

Comedian Bruce Devlin took my little unpolished stories and sprinkled his magic comedy dust all over them and within days had written a lovely, funny show for me to perform about the last 10 or so years of my life living in the public eye.

I tied the stories up with well known show songs and so Michelle McManus' Reality: The Musical was born.

Before I knew it the show had completely sold out its first run that August at the Fringe and received five star reviews from various critics who had come to see it.

It completely blew me away and I had to pinch myself a number of times to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

Not long afterwards I was given the opportunity thanks to the genius that is Mr Tommy Sheppard to bring the show back for a second year and perform it as part of the Assembly Rooms line up at their new venue in St Andrew Square Gardens.

Now I've been given the challenge of writing a brand new show for one night only at this year's Glasgow Comedy Festival at The Kings Theatre on Tuesday March 24 and I can't wait.

Bruce Devlin is back on board and will be writing the show and I've also enlisted the help of the very talented Tommy Chambers as musical director with a live five piece band on stage along with the incredible Soundsational Choir.

The show will still have the same mix of story telling and big lively numbers to sing and dance to but will be on a completely different level from anything I've done before.

Fingers crossed it all goes to plan and that everyone who comes to see it leaves with a big smile on their faces.

I've been so lucky in my life to have been given such unbelievable support from people and I've had opportunities I could have only dreamed of when I was growing up and now I get to sing, dance and tell all my tales for a living.

I'm one lucky, very grateful girl.

If you'd like to come see my show just log into

http://glasgowcomedyfestival.seetickets.com/event/michellemcmanusrealityreloaded/kingstheatre/825128/

The lovely Carina MacLeod is launching her new comedy night at The Sanctaury on Dumbarton Road, Glasgow this Sunday.

Carina will be hosting her comedy show each month and with top guests such as comedians Mark Nelson, Chris Hendry and Still Game superstar Sanjeev Kohli appearing on stage.

This is one night you won't want to miss.

Show starts at 8pm and you can can find out more information by following@CarinasCouch on Twitter.