Comedian, singer and TV host Jason Manford talks to Ashley Davies ahead of his new tour.
Scan the room at a Jason Manford gig, and you’ll see hundreds of people nudging each other and exchanging knowing nods. Whether the Salford-born comic is talking about relationships, life on the road, padel tennis, or anything really, being relatable is near the top of his list of priorities.
“After funny, relatable is the next most important thing for me,” says Manford, who is celebrating 25 years in comedy and is currently on tour with his new show, A Manford All Seasons.
“I love it when people say, ‘It was like listening to one of my mates down the pub,’ or ‘It’s like you had a camera in our house.’ It means I’ve put the work in and got it right.”
Given how he started in the business, coming up with funny stories from real life is a natural progression. As a 17-year-old, he was working at Manchester’s now-closed Buzz Club, collecting and washing glasses, when one of the comedy acts dropped out. The boss, noticing that Jason had the kind of wit and likeability that would work well on stage, asked him to come on as a substitute.
He soon got a taste for it. In 1999, having only performed six gigs, Manford won the City Life North West Comedian of the Year Award. Six years into his career, his show Urban Legends was shortlisted for the Edinburgh Comedy Award (then called the Perrier).
His latest tour will see him play over 175 dates in 2025. It’s packed full of reflections on his own life, including the fact that he now has six children, three of them teenagers.
“A lot of the show is about where I am in my life. My little darling children are turning into young women, so I talk about dealing with that, with stories of my life and my own childhood.”
His status as an all-rounder entertainer means he regularly sees people bringing their own teenagers to the show.
“I love that,” he says. “I’m like a gateway comedian to the harder stuff.”
Stand up isn’t the only thing in this busy man’s career. He’s starred in countless TV panel shows, including hosting the 2025 New Year special of Have I Got Sport For You and has led hit quiz shows like Unbeatable, ITV1’s What Would Your Kid Do? and BBC’s The Answer Run, which opened with 1.1 million viewers – the channel’s biggest daytime quiz launch in a decade.
Asked about the trickiest gig he’s ever done, he immediately recalls his experience of hosting the Royal Variety Performance. It’s something he’d always wanted to do, but when his chance came, it was during lockdown, and he had to perform to just 100 faces on a screen.
“It was the best and worst gig of my life. We had great material, and we got to open with a song and have this magical moment, but also I feel a bit robbed,” he admits.
So would he do it if they asked him again? “Would I? I literally ring them every year,” he laughs.
And then there’s the singing, something else he makes look easy. Not only did he make jaws drop in the first series of ITV’s The Masked Singer, but he’s been in a number of musicals, among them Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (he loved it so much he bought a replica of the car), The Wizard of Oz, Sweeney Todd and The Producers.
But stand-up comedy is his first love. In his memoir, Manford talks about the importance of humour as a life skill for young people. He’d love to see comedy being taught in drama classes as a way of helping children build up their confidence.
“Like I say in the show when I quote Edgar Degas, art is not what you see, it’s what you make other people see, and that’s what stand-up comedy is.”
Jason Manford is at the New Wimbledon Theatre on Friday, March 14. Tickets are from £39.61; see atgtickets.com or jasonmanford.com/live.
