JUST to put the pressure on, some feller at Scotland’s Sunday Herald said Perrier Award winning comedian Sean Hughes is “at his funniest and most profound” in Penguins, his newest show.

But after a month at Edinburgh Festival, Penguins went against type and took flight, earning Sean the Herald’s Angels accolade for Best Comedy Show.

On Friday, February 21, he comes to Bridgwater Arts Centre.

“There are two reasons I’ve called the show Penguins,” says Sean when he picks up the phone to the Mercury.

“When you’re four you’re cast out to school by your parents to fend for yourself, which is kind of like what penguins do. Then it’s about how penguins tend to follow the group. How profound is that? And obviously it’s a very funny show.”

At 48, Sean, who served as team captain on BBC music quiz Never Mind The Buzzcocks for ten series, calls himself an “old timer”.

His brand of comedy is more on the interaction side of things than the practised “gag reel” he says.

In Penguins, he weaves his audience through his adolescence in Dublin, his dad’s passing, school days and weird things social conventions make us do.

“For the first five to ten minutes of the show I like to go through the local paper and look at the news,” he says.

“I love local papers, I think they’re brilliant. The fact that they give everyone’s address whenever they commit a crime. If there’s someone caught dealing cannabis you know what address to go to if you want cannabis.”

Tickets cost £15 or £10 for concessions.

“All I want people to do is buy one and come along,” says Sean.

The show starts at 8pm.

Call 01278-422700 or book online at bridgwaterartscentre.co.uk