Jason Manford: 'I want to take my comedy to the people, rather than them come to me in a big city'
Jason Manford is on a well-earned holiday with his family in Portugal when we eventually get to speak. My original interview was cancelled at the last moment after Manford was taken ill with appendicitis while on the motorway. He was hospitalised, needed surgery and had to cancel a number of dates of his Manford All Seasons tour – something he hated doing.
But rather than cancel going on holiday to Portugal with his family (Manford is married to his second wife Lucy and they have two children, he has four children with his first wife) he decided to go by boat after doctors told him he wasn’t allowed to fly.
“It only took 33 hours and I did a lot of lying down – but I was desperate to get there,” says the comedian, adding that he will be fit enough to fly back and restart his mammoth tour which has a total of 176 dates and goes well into next year.
"I always do a big tour. I like to go to people rather than the other way round,” says Manford, 44. “I don’t just want to go to big cities like Leeds and Manchester and say to people if you don’t live there you either can’t come or you have to pay loads to get to see me. That just doesn’t make sense to me, it is far easier for one man to go all these different towns where people live. The hard part is writing the material so once it’s written it makes sense for as many people to see it as possible.” Manford promises his audiences two hours of laughter as he talks about the ‘random things of life’.
"We talk about children being psychopaths, an awkward story of moment in a sauna in China and my mate Dion Dublin from Homes Under the Hammer comes up a little bit – it’s an eclectic mix of over 60 topics. It just gets better each night. It’s on odd thing with comedy that the more specific you are about a story that effects you more people see themselves in your stories. That’s the trick of comedy – making the specific feel like it’s for everybody.” Manford likes to include his audience by asking them questions although he says he isn’t the type of comic who rinses the front row. “I think that’s so mean."
Manford’s first break in comedy came in 1999 when he was 17 and working as a glass collector in his local comedy club in Chorlton, Manchester.
"A couple of comics didn’t turn up and someone said ‘Jason’s quite funny in the kitchen’ – it’s not exactly the same thing, but they asked if I’d help out and do ten minutes which is how I started. It was a bit of luck but I think you make your own luck.” Six gigs later he was crowned The City Life North West Comedian of the Year.
Although he had never thought of comedy as a career he said seeing the likes of Peter Kay from a similar working class background making it big made him think it might be possible but even years into it he still really didn’t view it as career.
"It was more of hobby.” That was until the Edinburgh Festival in 2005 where he was ‘spotted.’
"That was the moment where it really kicked off for me. I had a really good show, there were TV people up there and I got nominated for a couple of awards and that really helped launch my comedy career.”
But there is far more to Manford’s career than being a stand up comic. Coming from a musical family, his nana was a singer in an Irish band who came over the England from Dublin, music and performing is in his DNA.
"All my aunties and uncles and my mum were able to sing so I grew up with that around me," says Manford who was crowned the winner of Born To Shine (ITV1) for his opera singing which he put into practice joining Alfie Boe on tour. Musical theatre was the next step.
“I have always loved musical theatre and I’d seen other people make the step across and I felt I was at a point in my career where I wanted to give it ago, but I wanted to do it right.”
Despite no theatre school training Manford applied for a role in Sweeny Todd with Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton when he saw an audition being advertised.
"It was to cover a guy who was already playing a part. It was the fifth character in the show. I auditioned, went back three or four times and eventually they gave me the part. Off the back of that, once people realise you are up for that sort of thing, you start to get approached. I went straight into The Producers and then Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the rest has followed.
"I love the variety. One of the benefits of my job is that no two days are the same and no two years are the same. When I finish a tour I can’t go back on tour straight away as it takes a while to get another tour together so I have to find something else to do that pays the bills and that I enjoy and that is where musical theatre comes in.
"I also get to work with other people that I love, as stand up can be a very lonely job, to be part of a family and have colleagues and you also learn a lot from the other performers they make me a better comedian and performer because they are so talented. The thing with entertainment you never stop learning. It keeps everything going.”
His musical theatre career may have gone from strength but so has his television and radio career. He is often seen on our screens presenting game shows (a second season of The Answer Run started on Monday) has also appeared in dramas and his own Absolute Radio Show.
So how does he get time to fit in family life and play padel – his favourite sport of the moment.?
“It all sort of slots in nicely,” he says. “I am very careful about what I say yes and no to. I’ve not done a full West End run of a musical as my family are in Manchester and that would make it a bit difficult.
"Even on the tour I really only do four nights a week and a lot of those are in the north so I can get home and have a day at home. I take the kids’ holidays off
I think with social media sometimes it can look a bit like you are busier than you are.
“Also we record five episodes a day you can smash out two series in ten days and then you are on telly everyday for three months.”
And is if all that wasn’t enough Manford is in the process of writing a musical with Gary Barlow and Joe Stilgoe. “It'’s a big family musical which I hope will be a big hit and will take up much of next year for me. I might dip my toe in the water with another theatre piece and then I think we might get back on the road with another tour.
"Stand up is still my first love and the thing I enjoy the most because it’s personal. You don’t have to worry about the edit or the viewing figures – it’s just in the moment and that is still the best experience. I love all the other things I do but they all build for the tour.”
A Manford All Seasons plays York Barbican, September 5 and Scarborough Spa Grand Hall, September 6. For tickets and other Yorkshire dates visit JasonManford.com