After more than a month of tracking down the contacts to get me to him, then patiently waiting for his permission for an audience, I finally get to meet the star.

Slavi’s inquisitive eyes are almost lost in the ample cellarage of two dark cavern-like holes; he carries an air of tiredness and boredom.

He says: “I am a very individual persona and I like people to address me in the second person singular, without any officiality or superficiality.”

Slavi is no TV show novice. His new show was born out of a decade or so of maverick programme-making.

Ten years ago he was one of three people working on the satirical Ku-Ku show on National Television, famed for fooling the nation with a fake broadcast about Bulgaria’s Kozlodui nuclear power plant exploding.

Two years ago the trio went their separate ways and Slavi started a show called Hushove, which continued to be satirical and damning of the government.

It was dropped by National Television and was shown on a cable channel called Seven Days took it for a while then it was dropped again.

Slavi said: “Television is unpredictable and I never know in advance what’s going to happen on a show. Every night the show is varied and spontaneous. This is what I like most about presenting.”

Slavi has not been able to find a common formula to use when conversing with all his guests in the talk show. He says he has enjoyed 95 per cent of his guests so far.

“The remaining unsuccessful five per cent are to be blamed on the presenter, which is me. And that’s down to lack of preparation and research on guests.”

Among his favourite subjects for conversation rank Kevork Kevorkian, the former presenter of a Bulgarian political television show, the classic/pop girl band Bond who are also Bulgarian, and Miss Italy 1999, Denny Mendes.

The Slavi Trifonov show tops bTV’s ratings. Two years ago, Slavi revealed his ambition to be sole presenter of a popular chat show. He told The Echo: “Back then I never imagined I would actually become such a star.”

Slavi was recently rated as popular among Bulgarians as President Petar Stoyanov (who is quite popular) in a survey by polling agency Alpha Research.

Slavi said: “I do not want to be compared with any politician or king because that is not my place. That (the poll result) is quite strange because I would never be involved with politics.”

He does not like the political game, denouncing it as unfair and dishonest, and full of intrigues – which he often criticises on his show.

He said: “I am a man who loves being the best in his field, and I wonder how some people can end up becoming something they are not made for.”

The star, who is originally from Pleven in north Bulgaria, enjoys being a businessman, a singer, a show host, and simply a star. He told The Echo: “I like all these to a great extent and I am not sure which of them I enjoy doing most. But together they represent the product of some very hard toil that occupies 24 hours of your day.”

Slavi constantly works on improving himself. He said: “I never stopped learning or acquiring knowledge. I am like a product, a cassette recorder, for example, and to sell at higher price I need to be of a higher quality, with better sound, etc. When everything is business you perceive yourself as a product. But, when you become a product, your personal life lags behind.”

For Slavi Trifonov professionalism is the guiding principle for the success of any task he sets himeslf. He said: “Sometimes a person has to complete an assignment he is not eager about but is obliged to do. In this respect I feel obliged to do things on the show, even if I don’t really feel like it. Singing a duet, dancing, the business side.”

He told The Echo he admires professionals who always fight and are ambitious enough to reach their goal, who never waver in the face of difficulties, who stand by their opinion and accept themselves as who they are.

He said: “I am so much a target for public discussion, both in a positive and negative light, that I am well-armed for criticism and praise. I just live in a form of reality and let myself get used to it.”

According to the spontaneous Slavi, no matter what your occupation is, it should create joy and excitement in people. He told the Echo: “Well, I am happy so my duty is fulfilled.

“If one day the difficulties begin to mount up and I feel I can’t get no satisfaction from my work, I will rent a farm and plant potatoes – and then the only problems I’ll have will be the Colorado bugs.”