Geoff Norcott: BASIC BLOKE

70-date national tour: September 2023 – April 2024

Leicester Square Theatre, London
Sunday 10 September, 2023

New national tour for star of Have I Got News For You, A League Of Their Own, The Last Leg, Would I Lie to You?, Live At The Apollo, 8 Out of Ten Cats, Backstage With Katherine Ryan and many more!

For his sixth UK tour, Geoff Norcott will be trying to make sense of the current cultural and political scene with his playfully provocative brand of humour. Whether it’s the dire blandness of the two main parties or the shamelessly shoe-horned right-on messages in adverts and films, Geoff will continue to delve into areas much of comedy leaves well alone. But this time around he also has a mission. As well as casting his everyman eye over what’s happening in wider society, Geoff is trying to unpick what’s happening with your average bloke. Remember them?

It’s been a rough couple of years for blokes. Toxic masculinity has grabbed all the headlines and ruined it for your standard model, who have been put under the microscope like never before. At first glance, there’s not much to examine – there’s no Bloke 2.0.

Taking up his own bloke’s-eye-view, Geoff can see that, despite the social media vortex, your man in the street, average Joe, man on the Clapham Omnibus and your John Smiths just keep plodding on, fuelled by a diet of football, sheds, super-hero films, sporting autobiographies, wearing socks at all times and strategically burying feelings when necessary.

However, under the paraphernalia of manhood and the sometimes basic, even primal, behaviour of dads and lads, Geoff can see that there is something mysterious and definitely non-toxic going on.

A kindly and funny stock-take of both himself his fellow man, BASIC BLOKE unlocks some of the more complicated behaviour of your husbands, dads and brothers.

Geoff has a string of top-level credits to his name including: Have I Got News For You (BBC2), The Last Leg (C4), Would I Lie To You? (BBC1), Backstage with Katherine Ryan (Prime Video), Mock the Week (BBC2), Live at The Apollo (BBC2), Offended by Irvine Welsh (Sky Arts), The Mash Report (BBC2), 8 Out of 10 Cats (C4). The Duchess (Netflix) A League Of Their Own (Sky) Late Night Mash (Dave), Richard Osman’s House Of Games (BBC Two) Countdown (Channel 4) Comedians Giving Lectures (Dave), and The Complaints Department (Comedy Central).

This month Geoff returned to Live at the Apollo to host his own episode.

Meanwhile, Geoff continues to be a feature in the world of political and social commentary, with regular appearances on political programmes including Question Time, Politics Live, Peston, and All Out Politics. Geoff frequently deputised for Giles Coren and Hugo Rifkind on Times Radio and has made regular appearances on Chiles on Friday (BBC Radio 5 live). Meanwhile, on BBC Radio 4, Geoff has made regular appearances on The News Quiz, The Now Show, and he has also appeared multiple times on Breaking The News (BBC Radio Scotland).

As well as writing for all the major topical comedy programmes, Geoff is also extending his forays into scripted comedy with credits for Tom Davis’ King Gary (BBC1) and Stephen Merchant’s The Outsiders (BBC2), and has an exciting new project in development with production company Mammoth.

In 2021, Geoff released his first book, the memoir Where Did I Go Right (How the Left Lost Me). It garnered praise from comics including Romesh Ranganathan, Katherine Ryan and David Baddiel and enjoyed 5-star reviews across Amazon (where it was a long-running No.1 best-seller in political comedy), Audible and Waterstones.