Nicholas Brendon, the wise-cracking Xander from Buffy, talked to Keith Austin during a brief visit to Sydney.

Acting is not just a job for Buffy star Nicholas Brendon - it's probably the only job. Before landing the role of Xander Harris, the LA native had given up acting and worked as (deep breath) a medical student, production assistant, plumber's assistant, veterinary janitor, food delivery guy, script delivery guy, day-care counsellor and a waiter in 13 restaurants.

"Yup, and I was fired from them all," he grins. "I just didn't care really, you know. I was bored, and I guess I was supposed to act."

In town for the Best of Both Worlds sci-fi convention, the 31-year-old actor is unshaven and a little jetlagged. He says he initially gave up his acting dreams after becoming disenchanted with Hollywood: "I was just really stressed out and it wasn't adding anything to my life ... I wasn't having fun. The day I quit acting, a big weight lifted off me."

On his return, though, it was just three months before he landed an audition for the role of the wise-cracking Xander. For non-Buffy fans, Brendon plays the "normal one" in the show. Xander isn't a vampire, a witch, a warlock or a demon; he has no special powers, nothing but his sense of humour and loyalty to his friends.

OK, he did once get split into two people, in an episode that exploited the fact he has an identical twin, Kelly Donovan. So how do we know who we're talking to? "You don't. That's the beauty of it - Nick was really tired, he had a long season," he jokes. "Look, the difference is that he had asthma as a kid and I'm a stutterer - what a freak show!"

Brendon is a spokesman for the Stuttering Foundation of America, although his stutter is dormant these days unless he's stressed or tired. As a fellow sufferer, I know one of the few times you can control it is while singing. So, I ask him, what was it like working on the recently aired all-musical episode?

"It was challenging ... I'd just gotten married so I really only started looking at the words two or three days before I got into the studio ... I started having nightmares, like that kinda showing up at school without pants on."

So what's going to happen to our favourite vampire slayer and her gang in the seventh and final Buffy season?

"Well, I know what's going to happen but I just haven't seen any scripts yet." Yes, but what's going to happen? "Oh, man, you're gonna love it," he guffaws, "but it's better to wait, you know."

As we share an elevator after the interview, Brendon wants to know if there are sharks at the Sydney Aquarium. Yes, there are, I tell him.

"Great whites?"

"No, no great whites."

He seems disappointed but then a bit of Xander pokes through: "You have to go to the beach for those, huh?"

Buffy screens on Seven, Mondays at 10.30pm.