Jason Manford: having a laugh despite the credit crunch

Nov 28 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

‘AH, THE credit crunch. Try being in my job. Making people laugh who might be thinking they could have spent the money on their heating bill.”

Comedian and 8 Out of 10 Cats team captain Jason Manford is keeping it real.

“Luckily, I foresaw this credit crunch thing.

“When they asked me how much I wanted tickets to be, I just thought the lowest they could be without making a loss. And I’m glad I did that now, because shows are selling out.

“I think people are always up for a laugh. It’s a bit different to what else people normally do, going to the cinema or for a meal, or bowling – I don’t know what people do. I haven’t had a night off myself for three years.”

It’s hard to believe, given his ever-growing profile, but this is actually his first solo UK tour.

“My problem is I don’t ever think that I’m either good enough or popular enough,” he says, when asked what took so long.

“There are always a lot of people around telling you nice things, but you don’t believe it because you don’t want to look silly. I didn’t want to book venues and not sell any tickets.

“But, I had just done 8 Out of 10 Cats and 3m people watched the last series.

“So all I need is 1% of those people to turn up and that’s a sell-out. When I added up the maths, it made sense.”

It turns out Jason has always looked on the bright side of his comedy career.

“I remember when I first started out doing the circuit and I’d do Jongleurs and Rawhide and all those great clubs, I’d be earning essentially a week’s wages in two nights and I’d think ‘this is brilliant! This is as good as it gets!’. It’s one of those jobs, I keep thinking it can’t get any better.

“I remember one time I was in Nottingham, I’d had a really tough gig and I was knackered, coming home in the car by myself, and thinking it was a really tough job.

“Then I looked outside and there was a man digging up the road in the dark, it was tipping down and I just thought – it’s not that hard.”

This year saw Jason end a stint as breakfast host on Manchester-based station XFM, after touring commitments began to take their toll.

“It was brilliant but I was getting up at 4.30am every morning and doing gigs until midnight.

“It was nice being part of people’s mornings,” he says with a genuine sweetness.

“But when you start to dislike the sound of birdsong and you’re shouting at the birds to shut up, you need to pack it in.”

His admittedly middle-of-the-road style makes him a good choice for TV and radio jobs, he reckons.

“Stand-up gives you a good grounding to do those other things, because there’s nothing else you can try on the back of stand-up that’s as difficult or as dangerous.

“On radio, you’re protected because the audience isn’t in the same room. And you won’t find out if you’re not funny.

“I’m pretty mainstream as far as the alternative scenes go, which I think works in my favour. I’m sure die-hard stand- up fans might go ‘Ooh, he’s not very edgy’. But not everybody can be edgy or we’d all fall off the end.