COMEDY for Geoff Norcott became important when he was eight-years-old.

He was on holiday with his parents on the Isle of Wight and had been entered into a Best Cowboy Competition.

He had to go on stage and say one line: “My name is Geoff and I am from Texas”.

Taking up the tale of what happened next, Geoff said: “I went up wearing my Stetson and dragging my holster behind me as it was too big for me, so I was getting laughs even before I had said anything.

“When I got onstage I said, ‘Hello my name is Geoff and I am from Essex’. This got a huge laugh and I still remember that feeling.

“That is when you say the wrong word, wrong name or wrong noun.

“It all becomes funnier. You might decide to pick an animal and go for aardvark but that is too weird for the audience.

“Much better to have chosen chaffinch or stoat.

“It is something they were not expecting and is funnier.

“This is when a weird word or noun is so much funnier. This is then the Sudoku of comedy.

“I do not like to think about it too long as it could take the magic out of it all.”

Geoff has been a professional comedian for 15 years. and he is a self-proclaimed Tory comic.

The main thing to say about Geoff is he wants people of any political persuasion be they left or right or from the middle to come along to his show and have a laugh.

He said: “I want them to come along and have a laugh. It is all about having a laugh at feminism, Brexit or kids spending their whole lives on an iPad.

“It is about pointing a finger and asking questions and having a laugh.”

Having a laugh or getting the comedy gene is something which Geoff got from his mother.

He said: “My comedy came from my mum. My dad was a trade unionist so I got my confidence for public speaking from him.

“My mum was very left field and while she could be diplomatic she could also be blunt with language and opinion.

“I remember she was blunt when it came to sex education.

“There were no birds or bees or storks with her. There were lots of medical terms

“Among her advice to me was never be a selfish lover son, no woman likes that. I was eight-years-old when she told me that!”

On the other hand comedy means laughs, laughs from telling jokes and the buzz from getting it spot on.

It can also be lonely as the comedian has to be able to live with themselves as Geoff remarked: “It doesn’t matter how many times Lenny Henry tells us the beds are soft at a Premier Inn, you still have to find something to do.”

The doing in a comics world is thinking and this is when the inspiration comes.

Geoff said: “I remember driving to one of the places where I had a gig and remembered something about that place and created a joke.

“When I put it in the show and people laughed, I got a buzz. It is like a DJ finding a new record in the box and then playing it.”

In an all encompassing chat which took in topics such as Brexit (Geoff loved leave), teaching (he used to be a teacher), the NHS and results be it elections or referendums.

In the modern world it seems if you do not like a result, you can blame the other side and try and get the result changed.

Geoff blamed social Media for this phenomenon.

He said: “Social media is something which people can control in their lives. So when something happens which they don’t agree with they want to change it.

“The latest Star Wars film wasn’t the story line they wanted and something like this comes from this intellectual narcissism.

“It is like paying a monthly subscription to a political party gives you the right to write its policy.”

Geoff is also a regular on BBC Radio with appearances on The Now Show, The Today Programme and his own Radio 4 stand-up special.

You can see Geoff Norcott in his new show Traditionalism at the McMillan Theatre Bridgwater on Saturday.

Tickets £12/£10. Buy online at mcmillantheatre.com or call the box office on 01278-556677.