HE famously handed Theresa May her P45 at the Tory party conference, gatecrashed Kanye West’s headline set on Glastonbury’s main stage and threw golf balls with swastikas printed on them at Donald Trump.

His comic creation Lee Nelson has played several sold-out UK tours. But now, for the first time, audiences are getting the chance to meet the man behind the headlines Simon Brodkin.

Troublemaker is the aptly-titled show which he is bringing to Darwen’s Library Theatre next week, part of his first tour out of character.

“It is a bit weird,” he said. “I’ve never given anyone anything about myself before I’ve always done stuff in character. I’ve always hidden behind the mask or done the stunts where again you’re not giving yourself away.

“But you know what? I’m loving it. For the first few shows on the tour it was a case of me thinking ‘what am I doing here?’. It was a bit like always having written with your right hand and then suddenly having to write with your left hand it all comes out scrawly and you are like ‘please let me use my right hand because that writes beautifully’. It was like that for a while but I stuck with it and now I think my writing with my left hand is better than with my right.”

Troublemaker was due to tour the country when the pandemic struck and venues shut down.

“I’d got the show ready and was chomping at the bit to get on the road and then, suddenly, nothing,” said Simon. “I remember I’d done some warm-ups shows and made some silly jokes about this strange virus in China and how it was never going to come here!”

But now the tour is in full swing.

“It’s a joy to be back on the road,” he said. “People are coming out and sharing in that live experience which had been taken away from us rather strangely for a while.

“There’s a really nice vibe in venues.”

The Covid-enforced delays have led to Simon having to change some of the show.

“It would be weird not to be talking about the biggest event in anyone’s lives but I don’t want to go overboard,” he said. “You don’t want it to be the Covid show. It has changed and adapted and moved on.”

Performing as himself has been a real eye-opener for Simon.

“You get a connection with the audience that you can’t ever achieve I think when you are doing something in character.” he said, “as you are not really talking about real things.

“Obviously I always want to be funny – that is my number one job whether it’s stunts, or as a character or as me. Ultimately I want people to leave the theatre with their sides aching with laughter but it is brilliant to be able to talk about real things and be the real me.

“Besides, if nothing else, I need less time to get ready for the show!”

So why has Simon decided to put himself centre stage?

“It just felt like the time was right,” he said. “Part of it was that I didn’t feel comfortable enough to do it before.

“When I started out it made complete sense to just do stuff in character; I like character comedians such as Ricky Gervais and Steve Coogan and Sascha Baron-Cohen and thought ‘why would I want to do something out of character?’.

“Playing Lee and Jason Bent (a fictitious Liverpool football player) has been amazing fun. You can be much sillier in character and it’s a quick win with the audience when you get on stage in the outfit.

“It’s a more immediate hit rather like a takeaway pizza whereas when you’re trying to do really great stand up comedy, that can be like a three-course meal.

“The more stunts I was doing the less I was in character. Also when I as doing Lee on stage a lot of it was interaction with the crowd and I started thinking ‘hang on, this is me really but Lee’s getting the credit here’.

“I suppose it just felt time to be myself.”

So does that mean Lee’s trademark baseball cap has been consigned to the back of the wardrobe?

“I suspect Lee managed to take advantage of the big government handouts during Covid and set up about eight businesses that needed help. He’s probably enjoying himself in Marbella for a while,” said Simon. “Look, at the moment I’m on my first tour and loving it. I think I did five tours as Lee so let’s talk about this again when I’ve done five solo tours.”

If Lee has been rested for a while, how about the audacious stunts?

“Well they do say once a prankster, always a prankster,” he laughed. “Maybe there’s always room for another good prank but they are all consuming. You need tunnel vision to organise them and see them through.

“Plus I suspect the police may be handing out my photo at future events.”

Simon Brodkin, Troublemaker, Darwen Library Theatre, Thursday, March 31. Details from www.bwdvenues.com