Jason Manford interview: Northern comfort

Published on Wednesday 7 January 2009 18:33

TO DESCRIBE Jason Manford as an old man in a younger man's body turns out to be a gross understatement. Despite being a successful comedian in a world that is sometimes edgy and often utterly bilious, Manford had a pension scheme in place by the time he was 21, drives a rented car and gave up alcohol having only ever been under its influence three times in his life. Slice up this Northern comic and, Blackpool Rock style, the word "sensible" would probably be all the way down his spi

"When I was 17, all my mates were going into town and getting drunk," he says. "I'd go in but I'd think, 'If we stay out much later it's going to cost 12 for a taxi, so I'm going to get the bus home for 70p.' Even at that age, rather than thinking, 'Let's have a great time and then worry about what happens later,' I'm 'No, let's worry now.'"

This cautious demeanour has fed directly into his brand of populist humour, which has led to his swift rise to a high level of comedy celebrity. Since he first strode confidently on to the stand-up stage a decade ago, the 27-year-old has regularly been compared to fellow Northern man of the people, Peter Kay. Amid the current climate of tabloids getting hot under their starched collars since Sachsgate first broke, everyone from Alan Carr to Graham Norton have been targets of the moral minority's ire. "For someone like me, it's fine, because I can ride through this moment of the Daily Mail setting the news agenda because I'm not near any of those edges; nothing that I say is going to be especially contentious to warrant a news story."

Still, Manford's fondness for the middle ground hasn't gone down too well with those looking for a bit more grit with their laughs. A large chunk of his new show is all about driving. "I've had some stick in reviews for not being edgy enough, but not everyone can be on the edge because we'll all fall off. People in the middle like me and Michael McIntyre and Peter Kay are just entertainers trying to hit the biggest demographic possible. I might be on a bill with someone like Jim Jeffries and they're glad someone like me is around because you can't just have filth and horrible effing and jeffing and jokes about paedophilia and misogyny for two and a half hours. You've got to have light and shade; a cup of sugar with your cup of dirt."

Manford got his big break in stand-up in Manchester's Buzz Club, where he worked collecting empties from the age of 15. Two years later in 1999, he was to follow in the footsteps of Steve Coogan, Lee Evans and Eddie Izzard, who had all played the venue, by filling in when the vehicle carrying two comics from London broke down. "I did lots of jokes about the area and general stuff like funny answers you'd heard on Family Fortunes, and as I came off the manager said, 'Go back on if you want.' I said, 'I don't have any more, that's me done.'" But clearly that wasn't Manford quite done. A few months later he won the North West Comedian of the Year Award and the gig offers began to flood in.

Having solidified his reputation in the North of England, Manford finally made the leap to play the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005. His Urban Legends show caught the imagination and earned him a spot on the last ever Perrier Awards shortlist. That he was ultimately to lose out to character comic Laura Solon didn't leave him feeling bitter or even defeated. "I thought Chris (Addison] would win and to be honest nobody cheered louder than me when somebody else got it. Obviously I'd have loved to win, I'm not an idiot, but where would I have gone after winning the top comedy award in my first year?" Where Manford ended up was occupying one of the team captain hot seats for Channel 4's panel show, 8 Out Of 10 Cats, indulging in joke table-tennis against opposing leader Sean Lock while Jimmy Carr sits in the big chair pouring hilarious buckets of hate upon the proceedings. He even fronted his own topical show last summer, Tonightly, which is tipped to return sometime in 2009.

Comedy is deep in Jason Manford's DNA. As part of a large Manchester Irish-Catholic family ("Shameless is like a documentary to us"), the business of entertainment is the family way. Manford is the eldest of six and tells me that one of his brothers has dropped the family surname to do some open-mic spots in Manchester. "A lot of my family are performers, singers or entertainers in Irish bands and I remember getting up at family dos and doing Elvis impersonations. I was always the funny lad at school, and it got me into a bit of trouble but I was in a school in South Manchester where they were more worried about getting killed than witty remarks. Teachers would leave at the end of the day relieved that a chair hadn't been thrown at them."

In May last year, more than chairs were being thrown around his city, when Rangers took on Zenit St Petersburg in the Uefa Cup Final while their fans tackled the might of Manchester's boys in blue. Manford describes the day as "Armageddon. Even my 85-year-old gran, who doesn't live anywhere near the city centre, rang to say, 'There's three Scottish people going past my house and they've all got a can of beer in their hand. Even the woman.' She was disgusted. My friend works in the city centre in a building with this huge glass front; on the outside it's a mirror, on the inside it's not and she said 'I've never seen as many penises in my life, with men just coming up to have a wee.' And she's sat at her desk about a foot away from this, all day long."

While his city took some time to big itself out of the ensuing debris, Manford merrily went on his way. He's in one of the businesses that traditionally do well when times are tough. As we slip into recession, the comedy world is preparing to hit paydirt. "People will always want to forget about their troubles for a while and just have a laugh and often when there's something to be angry about, that's when comedy thrives."

Adopting the research skills he's learned for 8 Out Of 10 Cats (reading the papers, basically), Manford has spotted another area of life that is doing well. "Most industries are suffering right now, apart from a few such as the adult sex toy industry. Their profits are up 26 per cent and I remember reading this and thinking have people not got their priorities right? There must be people sitting at home freezing and starving because they can't afford their bills, saying, 'I'm just going to pop out and get a new dildo to cheer myself up a bit.' I think comedy might be in the same bracket as the sex toy industry. We're both on the up."

&#149 Jason Manford plays Eden Court, Inverness, 11 January, The Stand, Glasgow, 12 January and The Stand, Edinburgh, 13 January.

BACKGROUND: SLIMMED-DOWN STAND-UPS

WHILE appearing as a guest on 8 Out Of 10 Cats in 2006, Jason Manford was continually called 'fatty' by team-mate Piers Morgan. After spending some time crying in his room, Manford took to the gym and shed two stone, and offered Edinburgh punters the chance to win 50 if they caught him on camera doing anything unhealthy during his Fringe run in 2007.

&#149 Burly former Fast Show and Cold Feet star John Thomson was so sick of playing 'chubby losers' that he lost two stone in order to get some more action hero roles.

&#149 Gina Yashere lost four stone in ten months, inspired by her decision to move to LA, where she insists "you can't be fat". Intriguingly, she revealed the story of her weight loss in May to Liverpool Daily Post writer, one Emma Pinch.

&#149 Johnny Vegas appeared to have made a career out of his full figure, even starring in his own Channel 4 quiz show entitled 18 Stone of Idiot. For this northern comic, his reason to slim down was to be around longer for his son, Michael. His regular doses of gout also influenced his change of habit, though he has said he feels some sense of guilt over the fact that the main pie producer in his hometown of St Helen's has since closed three of its shops.