SO what do you do when you've told your four year-old niece you are going to solve the world's environmental problems.

Well if you're Jonny Donohoe, you make a show about it.

Jonny is perhaps best known as the performer of the multi-award winning one man show, Every Brilliant Thing, produced by the acclaimed Paines Plough theatre company but he's also one half of the musical satirist group, Jonny and the Baptists, who are currently on their largest tour to date with their latest show The End is Nigh.

Jonny says: "The show's about how after the election I promised to solve climate change.

"My niece is pretty clever and whenever we have a conversation I always struggle to answer her questions and this was a similar moment. So after I basically told her the world was going to end because of climate change, to stop her crying I promised to fix it."

And that's exactly what Jonny and the other half of the band, Paddy Gervers, tried to do.

"So the first half of the show is how this all happened," he continues, "and the second half is, after doing quite a bit of research, how one could, if they wanted to, actually go about fixing climate change."

The resulting show is perhaps their most personal - and apocalyptic - venture to date. Featuring all the hallmarks of their success from barnstorming satirical rock to flights of brilliant silliness, it blends comedy, theatre and rock gig in a captivating story of family, friendship and environmental disaster.

"The most important thing in the show," Jonny tells me, "is that we never question this is happening. The scientific community are certain so there's no point denying what's going on, which means the starting point beyond that is what can everyone do on a personal level."

But although it has a socially important underlying message, Jonny promises it has all the normal ingredients of a Jonny and the Baptists show.

"It's a big mix of silly and stupid things," he assures me. "We're both huge fans of Mark Thomas and the way he mixes both funny and political to get across his message. That's what we try to do but most of all we try and entertain. After all that is our job."

Originally both from Oxford, the comedy duo were at school together at Abingdon but didn't form their musical partnership until years later.

“We met at Paddy's brother's wedding a few years ago,” he says, “and as we’re not comfortable dancers we got drinking and chatting.

"We had a healthy interest in what the other one did and both put our cards on the table as neither of us had much going on at the time.”

Joining forces changed everything and the pair immediately moved up to London together and started gigging straight away.

“There were only a couple of tricky months but if you get a gig and they like you, they tend to book a string more,” he explains.

Now in constant demand, as well as Radio 4 work, things are looking rosy, but the lads do look back on their humble beginnings and laugh.

“We headlined in Croatia at the very start," Jonny says, "which was funny because no one could understand a word we said, and then Norwich booked us for a folk festival thinking we were a folk act so we didn’t go down very well there either.”

But since bursting on to the scene in 2013, they've faired a lot better, both together and on their own projects.

Alongside Jonny and the Baptists, Jonny has been nominated for a New York Drama Desk Award for his hit one-man show Every Brilliant Thing, while Paddy Gervers has grown a cult following for acclaimed podcast ‘Podshambles’.

Jonny says: "Every Brilliant Thing started with Duncan MacMillan's short story which he wanted to turn into a full length play for Edinburgh.

"Like our shows, it deals with a very important issue in a comedic way, and it's been a great success.

"It opened a couple of years ago for a three-week run at Edinburgh but since then has toured the UK twice, done a four and a half month tour of the US and also been to places like Canada, Australia and New Zealand."

Together they are regulars on BBC Radio 4's The Now Show, the pair have also topped the iTunes Comedy Chart with single ‘Farage’, supported Mark Thomas on tour and recently appeared on the BBC's Live at Television Centre.

Following The End if Nigh, Jonny revealed the duo already have their next show in the pipeline, which like the others balances the silly with the serious.

"It's called Eat the Poor," he tells me. "It's essentially about the wealth gap and starts with the true story that back in 2009 when he was being interviewed David Cameron couldn't remember how many houses he had.

"We're writing the show at the moment working with homeless groups in Oxford, which as it turns out is one of the least affordable places in the country.

"What we really want to get across in this show is that inequality generally makes everyone unhappy. The more disparate the people, the more gloomier the nation is and in countries where the wealth gap isn't very wide at all, overall people are far more happier."

- How to 'fix' climate change - according to Jonny and the Baptists;

"There are lots of things people can do to help," Jonny says, "it's just none of them are much fun.

"First of all become a vegetarian. That's pretty much the number one biggest problem, the fact that it requires so much land to produce all the meat we require.

"Then wee in the shower. If we flushed the toilet half as much as we do now we would save 18billion litres of water a day.

"And finally, and this is really important, encourage your local MP, especially if they're Conservative, to return to all the 'green' policies they promised to introduce before the election and then promptly ditched."

Jonny and the Baptists

Lakeside Theatre,

Square 5, Essex University.

Tomorrow, April 21. 7.30pm.

£12, £8 concessions. 01206 873261

www.lakesidetheatre.org.uk

Also at;

New Wolsey Theatre,

Civic Drive, Ipswich.

Sunday, April 24. 7pm.

£10 to £17. 01473 295900

www.wolseytheatre.co.uk