Laughter is Jason Manford’s solution to the world’s problems

Jason Manford may only be 32 but he’s very much an old-school comedian.

He doesn’t try to be outrageous or shocking, he just wants to make as many people as possible laugh.

And that all comes from the comedians he heard while growing up in a terraced house in Salford, Greater Manchester.

“My dad was a big Billy Connolly fan and he was a pioneer, the godfather of it all,” explains Jason.

“He was doing it when it wasn’t popular, when there was no money to be made.

“And he’s still got it at 70, you’re not thinking: ‘All right, leave it out now, grandad’.

“I saw him last year and he’s still electric he’s just brilliant and a real hero.

“I just enjoyed the comedy my parents watched.

“That’s what I grew up on, and the stuff I do now is an offshoot of what the likes of Les Dawson and Tommy Cooper were doing.

“They were genuinely just thinking: ‘How can I make as many people as possible laugh?’.

“My audience doesn’t come out for a good think on a Friday night. I just want them to go home and say: ‘For two hours, I just managed to shut down, not think about anything else that’s going on in my life at the moment, and had a good laugh’.

“There’s a place for the other stuff but you can’t have an edge without a middle, and I think sometimes people turn their noses up at the middle.

“But actually that’s what most of the country wants to see look at Peter Kay, Michael McIntyre and Lee Evans, nobody goes to see them for their political viewpoint!”

After a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe, Jason has a mini tour of Scotland before setting out on seven months of solid touring.

Unlike his last tour, he’s playing theatres rather than arenas because, as he says: “I prefer smaller venues.

“They’re good for my style, which is more of a friendly chat, as you can just interact more. On this tour, I don’t have an intro tape or anything, I just wander on.

“People are sat chatting until they think: ‘Hold on, there’s a bloke up there!’.

“The tour’s called First World Problems which are just the annoying little things we get wound up about.

“I tell the audience some of mine, then ask for theirs and you get different answers.

“In a small town or village, it’ll be: ‘If someone’s left their cockerel out’ and then in posher areas like Tunbridge Wells, it’ll be: ‘I hate it when they spell your name wrong on the frappucino cup’!”

One thing there won’t be is any singing, despite winning ITV’s Born To Shine singing opera, appearing in London’s West End last year in the musical Sweeney Todd opposite Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton and touring with tenor Alfie Boe.

“I’m from a singing family, they were all in Irish folk bands or country ’n’ western bands,” Jason explains.

“It was a family tradition on a Sunday afternoon, you’d go and watch nana, who was the lead singer and all my uncles and aunts who were her band, play in the pub.

“You’d pick a couple of songs up as you were playing pool through the back.

“Then for a charity thing a few years back, I had to learn a Pavarotti song in six weeks and I really enjoyed it. And I’ve always loved musical theatre.”

Is that not a brave admission from a Salford lad?

“Yeah! I remember driving to watch Man City once and I was listening to Elaine Page on Radio 2, singing along, and my dad was saying: ‘There’s something confusing about you, driving to football singing along to that!’.

“I randomly got an email saying they needed someone to cover for this guy for six weeks in Sweeney Todd.

“I absolutely loved it.”

Jason Manford: First World Problems Tour will be at the Edinburgh EICC on August 20-25 before touring the UK until March, 2014. For more information and tickets, visit www.jasonmanford.com