So, I was in this bar in Phnom Penh

...and I got chatting to this weird-looking, skinny guy (a bit like an even paler David Bowie). One quarter Japanese, one quarter Khmer, half English.

He reckoned he had 5 kids, 2 of them with his current Cambodian wife. He got sacked from the local Ministry for refusing to kow-tow to his superiors in the hierarchy (Buddhists can be shit people too, as we've seen), and is now a teacher. Gets up at 5 AM to start work. 

He reckoned too that, years ago, he used to run the Comedy Store off Leicester Square, where he procured coke or speed for most of the top comedians (I'll let you guess which comedian chose what drug). Late nights, he used to hang out with them at the Groucho Club, where his brother, a top record producer also used to go.

I said I'd been to the Comedy Store, and Paul Merton was in the audience. More showbiz talk ensued. I asked him if he knew my brother Pete  from doing the lighting rigs in theatre-land (hi Pete, if you're reading). He needed a physical description. Tall guy, beard, with (then) a pony tail. He scratched his head. 

OK, I said, what about Alexei Sayle - you must have met him? 

Blank.

"You know - fat bastard in a tight suit?'' 

Blank.

It was only later, walking home, that I had a moment of realisation (thanks Viz) - the Man In the Pub, Cambodia's most well-informed conversationalist, was actually Aldridge Prior, Hopeless Liar.