STAND-UP comic Bobby Murdock continues his comedy column for Weekend.

This month, the Padgate resident talks about why he wanted to become a stand-up comedian in the first place.

From as early as I can remember from being knee-high to a grasshopper I always had ambitions of becoming an entertainer but it was something I never really started until my early 30s.

My earliest memory of making people laugh was being in a school play when I was six.

I was dressed as a scarecrow and a group of us were dancing and singing a song.

My timing was completely out so when they moved left I would move right and so on.

The adults watching started to laugh so I began to put the mistakes in on purpose and acted silly.

From that point, I just continued to mess about and mimic Cannon and Ball sketches.

But the first stand-up comedian I watched on a video was comedy legend Billy Connolly.

My teacher at Burtonwood Primary School lent me a copy when I was nine.

I remember watching Billy and just being in absolute awe of how he would make the most basics of things so funny.

He would tell stories from his childhood, he would talk about being an apprentice and his first job as a welder.

He would talk about people he met and characters in his life, including the area that he had grown up in Glasgow.

It's also how I learnt to swear...when I gave the teacher the video back on a Monday morning she asked if I enjoyed it. I said it was f***ing brilliant.

Other comedians I got into after watching Billy was Phil Cool.

A very different type of act, he would pull faces and do impressions of famous people, mimic television programs and do spoofs and sketches particularly a programme called Dallas which was very popular in the 80s.

I continued to watch these shows throughout my school days and would just try and be funny during conversations in the school yard or classroom which would often get me into trouble.

I would do impressions of the teachers or do sound effects of a drill or electric saw in CDT class.

I saw drama class as a good opportunity to express myself and funnily enough all the things that I got in trouble for in other classes got me great marks there.

It's something that I should have continued to study as I left school when careers advisors were pointing me in the direction of a job in a bank or something like that like to get into a trade.

In a way it's been a blessing in disguise as I've gone out and got some life experience and can talk about this now on stage.

See you next month

Bobby Murdock

- To find out more about Bobby and the gigs he organises around the UK and in Warrington area follow him on Twitter @WhoDaresGrins or visit whodaresgrins.com