When you’re a comedian famed for your left-wing views and your funny take on politics, there could hardly be a better time to be working than right now.

Jeremy Hardy should have plenty to talk about when he comes to Blackheath Halls on October 16 and Epsom Playhouse on November 12.

The 54-year-old Perrier Comedy Award winner and Radio 4 favourite said: “There’s loads going on the moment, which is quite good. The party conferences are quite lively.

“The show is not all about the news. But it’s always quite helpful if there are things going on. There’s the whole thing about the attacks of Corbyn and then David Cameron’s past lightening the mood. That was all quite fun.”

While none of us knows the truth surrounding the allegations about what the Prime Minister and so-called #piggate, it certainly is a rich vein for a comedian.

“Obviously we don’t know whether the David Cameron story was true, but I think most of us rather hope that it is. It speaks to a higher truth, I think it should be true even if it isn’t.

“We have just got to hope that it is true and hope that it leads to some tense breakfast table conversations with Samantha.”

Hardy has also found himself in a rather odd position on stage lately because of his support for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the media attacks on him.

He said: “It’s extraordinary. It’s just bizarre because he’s just a very nice, very straightforward, principled man and they are making out that the gargoyles will descend on the earth just because he’s been elected leader of the Labour party.

 

 

 

“The worse thing is the worst of the abuse actually comes from his own side.

“Usually you find yourself going on stage to attack people. It’s quite a new one for a comedian, going on stage feeling like you’ve got to defend someone.

“It’s harder to be positive. The way humour works, you tend to laugh at things that have gone wrong.

“Various people have tried to do cheerful or positive comedy but there’s always something hollow about it. You laugh at someone dropping an ice cream down the front of their shirt, you don’t laugh at them enjoying their ice cream and not making a mess.”

Jeremy lives in Streatham so is relishing the chance to play a more local show. Audiences is in the south east tend to be more reserved, he said, which is probably a relief judging by what happened at one gig earlier in the year.

The police were called to one of his shows in Burton after a disturbance in the audience.

He said: “It was a bit of a strange one. It took a little while to work out what happened. One woman was laughing very loudly and it was annoying the woman behind her. The woman behind told her to stop laughing so loudly.”

A fight broke out and the police were called.

Jeremy added: “It all got a bit out of hand. It meant the interval lasted for 45 minutes.

“I thought I can’t really start and have the police come in.

“The only frustration was I had a whole load of new material I wanted to work in and the audience just wanted to discuss the fight.

“I have never really had women fight over me in that way. It was a new one.

“Probably that is the most unusual thing to happen at a gig. I had a crying baby once that I brought on stage to quite it down but people assumed it was part of the act and that I’d got a weird baby act.”

Jeremy Hardy is at Blackheath Halls on October 16 and Epsom Playhouse on November 12. Go to blackheathhalls.com or epsomplayhouse.co.uk