Meet the UK's only Conservative-voting comedian

AS A Conservative-voting comedian, Geoff Norcott may not be unique – some might say Boris Johnson qualifies on both counts – but he’s certainly a rare species. So much so that an audience member at his Edinburgh Festival show was under the impression he was playing a character.

“It was on the second night,” Norcott says via patchy mobile phone signal from the Scottish capital. “She heard me express what are actually pretty mainstream views and thought she must be watching a conceptual piece of character art. I guess some people just don’t like their views being challenged.”

Norcott certainly isn’t taking the easy route to success in what is famously a liberal-dominated industry. His Edinburgh show Conswervatism is born of his conversion from left-wing to right-wing politics and tries to make sense of how he actually reached the point where, as the son of a trade union representative, he felt the need to switch sides.

He’s concluded that it happened gradually during his previous career as a teacher. “I always think politics is a bit like football,” he says. “You tend to grow up supporting the same team your dad supports. But as a teacher I didn’t feel the liberal attitudes within the profession were the best way to teach the kids. I’ve always believed in taking individual responsibility, for one.”

Recent events mean Norcott isn’t short of material. He says he’s happy that the party has emerged from the rubble of the EU referendum vote with Theresa May at the helm.

“Andrea Leadsom came at it from the angle that she would do a better job because she was a mother, but I thought she was more like a crazed primary school teacher,” he says. “Mums think they can do a lot of things. Mine thought she could cut hair – but she didn’t want the nuclear launch codes.

“What was interesting after the Brexit vote, as someone who voted to come out of the EU, was the reaction. I was doing a panel show the morning after and it was quite tense, I felt like a genuine outsider.

“It did make me laugh though when the self-satisfied Remainers staged a march after they’d lost. Were they were too busy enjoying a Spanish-style siesta to get round to doing it before?”

Aware that his views won’t often chime with those of his audiences, Norcott operates a ‘heckle amnesty’ which “allows the lefties to have their say”. So far, it’s resulted in more questions than quarrels.

“Some people like to point out to me why they think I’m wrong, which I would say isn’t really heckling. One bloke did tell me that he was ‘to the left of Jeremy Corbyn’. I thought, that’s a very small gang of people, mate.

“But what’s nice is that people of both political persuasions, Labour and Conservative, have been coming along, probably out of curiosity more than anything.

“A lot of punters suspect that my comedy is going to be about punching down on the needy and vulnerable, but that’s not what it’s about at all. I’m actually punching up at the liberal-dominated comedy industry and media.”

As a fervent Brexiteer, the 39-year-old insists the short-term pain caused by the vote will ultimately lead to long-term gain. In the meantime, however, he’s annoyed by the reaction of the Remainers, including his own so-called friends.

“There’s this strange culture of people defriending others on Facebook just because of how they voted. I want my stand-up to remind people that you can vote Conservative and Leave and not be an awful person.

“There is this schism between Left and Right at the moment and I don’t think it’s constructive for either side. We need to keep listening to each other.”

He pauses. “Actually I should probably stop there – that sounds far too liberal.”