That's what he loved about his four years on the weekly hothouse of Saturday Night Live, with its famously high-pressure writing schedule. He says he's not sure how competitive he is, but I think we can deduce – when he says he relishes being with writers who are 'as good as or better than' him – that the answer is: very. When I'm writing, I ask myself, 'Will it have a good hook?' If I throw a story out, it probably wasn't catchy enough.' 'I think of myself as the literary equivalent of a songwriter. 'I'm not even the best writer in my own bedroom.' (He lives in Brooklyn with Kathleen Hale, who writes young adult fiction.) But Rich does know what he's good at.

'I'm maybe the 20th or 30th best writer on my block,' he laughs. Yet at 29, he is arguably the wittiest American humourist of his generation. Rich, son of former New York Times columnist Frank and brother of novelist Nathaniel, is baby-faced, even Bambi-faced, and so slight he must have to dart around in the shower just to get wet. Despite all these achievements, when we meet in a Soho restaurant it's hard to resist asking him: 'Where are your parents and why have they left you here alone?' Simon Rich has written two comic novels ( Elliot Allagash and What in God's Name?), three story collections, served as the youngest-ever member of the sketch-writing team behind US comedy show Saturday Night Live, and written a screenplay for Pixar.

Simon rich kathleen hale