Portable DVD player

Comedians buy lots of useless gadgets. We get paid in cash so we have pockets full of money, and there’s always peer pressure at gigs – “Oh, you haven’t got an iPhone? Really?” – so I buy a lot of gadgets I regret.

My greatest failure was a portable DVD player with a pop-up screen. I have a laptop that plays DVDs on a much bigger screen and yet I paid something like £600 for this thing in a street market in Hong Kong.

I rigged it up on the plane home but the base heated up so much I thought it was burning a hole in my thighs. It’s still in its original box. I could use it for ironing, I suppose.

— Marcus Brigstocke hosts The Now Show on Radio 4 and was talking to Stephen Armstrong. For details of his tour go to www.marcusbrigstocke.com

Explore Personal Tech

• Test Bench

Times recommends

• Make 3D images with your own camera
• Lifelike animation heralds new era for computer games
• Anti-spam tool used to translate old books