Jason Manford Interview

Jason Manford Interview

22 October, 2008
by: Emma

Currently on a huge tour encompassing most of the UK, Mancunian comic Jason Manford comes to London next Friday, performing at the Bloomsbury Theatre.  Nominated for a Perrier in 2005, and dubbed 'the next Peter Kay', he hosted the XFM Manchester Breakfast Show until earlier this year and is currently a team captain on Channel Four's 8 Out of Cats with Sean Lock and Jimmy Carr.  We caught up with him and found out what the tour's all about and why he doesn't think he's anything like Peter Kay.

E: So Jason, It's your first big UK tour – how has it gone so far?

J: It's gone alright we've just added a load more dates.  It started in September and it's going to go on till mid March but I wouldn't have done it if I wasn't enjoying it.

E: So you don't find it too soul-destroying being on the road and doing the same jokes again and again?

J: No it's been alright, although the skeleton of the show is the same I ask people quite a lot of questions and they always have different answers.  It's quite exciting because you never know what they're going to say, one night it went on for about 60 minutes!

E: Yeah, I read a review somewhere about a gig you did in Birmingham that lasted about two hours with a 45 minute encore – you obviously like giving people their money's worth.

J: Well, there's a credit crunch on Emma.

E: I think Sarah Silverman should take a leaf out of your book.

J: Yeah, I should give her half an hour!

E: So what's the show about because it doesn't have a silly name like most, it's just called The Jason Manford Tour.

J: Yeah I'm not really bothered to be honest, I thought if I added a title it would be 'Funny Things That I Think' - so it's just a few mad things, bits about driving, stuff about my dad and a bit of a funny chat really.

E: Are you looking forward to your London gig because a lot of comedians say it's a harder crowd to please down here?

J:  I don't know, obviously it's different from my hometown in Manchester but I've always had a great time in London, at the end of the day everyone's there for the same reason to have a laugh and you're there to give them that.  Being northern is a passport around the world really, sometimes I find that just having a different turn of phrase will get a laugh in London because it's quaint!

E: Going back to how you got into comedy – your first gig was a bit of an accident wasn't it?

J:  It was.  I was working at the comedy club, collecting glasses and a couple of comics didn't turn up, so I stepped in.  I mean I'd been itching to do it so it wasn't totally unprepared.

E: So what happened after that, did you just get the comedy bug and decide to do loads more gigs?

J: I just went on the open mic circuit and it went alright, somebody told me early on if you think you did a good gig somewhere then make sure you don't do it again for free so it cost me a lot of gigs because I thought they had gone badly!  I carried on doing gigs on the circuit and was lucky enough to win the North West Comic of the Year Award.

E: Yes, because you quickly won quite a few big awards didn't you like the Mercury and the North West Comedian of the Year.  Did that open a lot of doors for you at that point?

J: Yes it did but it was difficult because to start with you're only prepared for seven minutes of stand-up and then people are asking you to play their club for 30 minutes and you don't have enough material.  I took a step back and went to university.  I did a course in script-writing and acting and that helped, I found suddenly I had half an hour of material. Then I had an idea about urban legends which is something I've always been interested in and that's what I took to Edinburgh and led to the Perrier.

E: What's Edinburgh like, is it quite terrifying the first time round?

J: It's not doing the actual gigs that's scary, it's the potential amount of money you could lose.  Even when I went back in 2007 and did an hour's show every night, it was 150 seats and I'd just done 8 Out of 10 Cats so it was sold out most nights but in the end I got a cheque for £200!  I was like 'how the heck have I only made £200?!' 

E:  That's ridiculous - after all the costs had been added up?

J: Everyone takes their slice.

E: God, and you were a successful comic, I can't imagine what it must be like for people who aren't as established.

J: Exactly!

E: Around that time when you were just getting into comedy, you were hailed as the 'next Peter Kay'.  Are you two friends?

J: Well I know Peter yes but I can't see it myself, I'm from Manchester and he's from Bolton and has a broad Lancashire accent so in the north it doesn't happen as much and people don't say it.  Because I'm not very rude and I don't swear it's an easy pigeonhole.  I think Michael McIntyre is similar to Peter, not through accent or delivery but he's got a similar comic eye.  To be honest I wish I was more like that because I'd love to be able to pick out those foibles of everyday life and he's got hundreds!  A lot of my stuff is more story-based.

E: You did Live at The Apollo in front of 3,000 people. Are you now totally relaxed in front of a huge crowd?

J: Well, of course you've got the live audience to entertain but I think that show has more than 5 or 6 million viewers or something so yes it was scary walking out on stage but at the same time I was aware it was on telly. There was one point where I messed up a line and I just let it go and then later on I just did the line again and they edited it back in, but the live audience were going 'he's just said that!'  When it comes to being screened however, you think: 'Well who's the winner now?!'

E: Yeah, I think getting it right for 5 million beats 3,000! What's next on the agenda – because you can act and I've heard you like singing – would you like to try theatre or do big films?

J: I think with everyone's career your horizons become your middle distance, all those things you aim for - eventually a couple you'll get and then you have to make do.  I've got a couple of sitcoms in the pipeline and I've got a few ideas for stuff on stage, hopefully 8 out of 10 Cats will run and run. You look at Have I Got News and that went on for 36  series so I wouldn't mind just half of that!

E: That's the beauty of it, it never gets stale because it's topical.

J: Exactly, as long as the news changes every day we'll be fine.  That runs till the end of November, I've got some time off for Christmas and then around March is when TV season kicks back in and you do pilots for whatever pops up, so yeah, I'm pretty busy - if it all goes well anyway!

E: Well thank you very much for talking to me Jason and lots of luck with the London gig!

J:  Thanks Emma, take care.

Click here to read a full transcript of this article which includes Jason's worst guest on 8 out of 10 Cats,  how he got his fans to help him choose material for the Secret Policeman's Ball and what animal he'd like to see the size of a dog.

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Emma