RICH Hall is in shock.

The comedian, known for his grouchy demeanour and scathing outlook on America, is still getting used to the idea that Donald Trump will be the leader of the free world.

The divisive businessman and reality TV star defied all odds to win the 2016 presidential election with outrageous pledges like a ban on all Muslims entering the country and to build a wall between the US and Mexico. But when it comes to laughing or crying, Rich certainly knows which he prefers.

“That’s kind of the only blessing I can think of out of this whole thing,” he said. “He’s going to provide lots of comedians with different angles on what to make of him from a comedic standpoint. Nobody made any jokes about Obama. There were a lot of Bush jokes and there will be plenty of Trump jokes…so it is good for ‘art’.”

Rich will taking up a four-day ‘residency’ at the Lowry, Salford Quays from Monday, December 12 when he will be hosting his own version of a Hoedown - a mix of music and comedy.

And you can be sure that the show will include his own observations on the state of his nation.

Rich said: “I’ve added a lot of stuff which is current and will evolve as people wait and see what they make of this whole thing. It’ll be a running commentary for the next four years. I was as shocked as anyone.

“I tend to look at it as a city versus country thing. If you look at the electoral maps you can see that the rural counties voted Trump and the cities bid for Clinton.

“I thought I was more in touch with people in the country because I live out in Montana.

“But it turns out I wasn’t even reading my own people correctly. My county voted for Trump but I don’t know many people in my county who are Trump supporters. So that took me by surprise.

“There were the ‘shy’ Trump voters, I suppose, which sounds like an anomaly. I can’t imagine Trump voters not wanting to attract any attention to themselves. But that was probably why they were wearing camouflage.

But Rich also reckons the mud slinging at Trump supporters is not particularly helpful.

He added: “There are racist people, there are anti-immigrant people, there are people who are genuinely fed up with the government. There are a lot of different reasons for people to be angry so it is probably a mistake to say they are a ‘basket of deplorables’ to quote Clinton.

“I’m not sure that’s true. There’s probably a lot of evangelicals who probably didn’t approve of Trump’s lifestyle but also saw that the government in general was threatening them.

“There are lots of different reasons that people were fed up of the current government. Some felt liberalism had gotten out of hand and they were fed up of being told what to do.

“Others felt that the government was concentrating too much on subjects that meant nothing to them.

“After all everyone pays their taxes and everyone feels they have a say in what the government pays attention to.

“It happens. It’s fairly cyclical. People eventually get fed up, throw everything out and start over again. Unfortunately this time they got kind of a scary guy to do it. I think people will realise that Trump is not a person that can be taken literally.”

So is it hard to make jokes about things you are passionate about?

Rich said: “Angry comedians aren’t really that angry. They might have been angry at one point but you can’t go on night after night and do some well-honed diatribe about something and work up the same amount of anger.

“When you see comedians get angry on stage it is usually because they are heckled. They’re not in control any more. So it is not a good idea to just go out and rant. There’s something behind it.”

Rich has been on the circuit for more than 35 years. But before he started setting the world to rights he was a street performer.

He said: “I’d seen a lot of street performers on the west coast of America and I thought it would be fun. Looking back, it was quite a ballsy thing to do – start shouting until you have a crowd in front of you and then start performing – but it was good training for winning over an unsuspecting audience.

“Then thankfully the club scene started to form in America so I honed my outdoor act into something that could be done with a microphone. I didn’t have to shout anymore.”

His big break came when he was spotted by a producer for the David Letterman Show and became a writer and performer for the series. So did the political edge to his comedy exist even then?

He said: “No, I was a crazy prop comedian. Even now I don’t think of myself as a political comedian because it’s just one of the things I talk about. If you’re a real political comedian you take yourself way too seriously. You go from political comedian to activist and I’m not remotely interested in that.

“The best activism you can do as a comedian is to make people laugh about what might not be a humorous situation. It’s just another president. Hopefully.”

Rich Hall: Hoedown 2016, the Lowry, Salford Quays, Monday, December 12 to Thursday, December 15. Details from 0843 208 6000