Jason Manford tour coming to York for comedy gig – details

SCAN the room at a Jason Manford gig and you’ll see hundreds of happy people nudging each other and exchanging knowing nods.

Whether the Salford-born comic is talking about relationships, life on the road, paddle tennis or anything else, really – being relatable is near the top of his list of priorities.

Can he make out those responses, from under the bright spotlights? “Yeah, I see that and I feed off it,” he says. “That’s how I develop stuff, how I end up finding material that on paper might not not feel like much, but suddenly you see the audience respond in a certain way and you think, ‘Oh, hang on, I’ve got something here’.”

“After funny, relatable is the next most important thing for me,” says Manford, who is celebrating 25 years in comedy, and 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.’ I love that because it means I’ve put the work in and got it right.”

Coming up with funny stories from real life seems like a natural progression, given how he started in the business. 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 couldn’t make it. 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 did as he was asked and, despite being completely unprepared, ended up playing a blinder with his observations about real life.

He soon got a taste for it. It, of course, helped that Peter Kay – some might say the king of putting into words experiences most of us are familiar with – became something of a mentor to him, encouraging him to spend the equivalent of a full-week’s working hours on comedy to perfect his craft.

Manford talks about it – and lots of other illuminating stories from his childhood – in his entertaining memoir, Brung Up Proper, which covers everything from the foibles and history of his family to the heartbreaking reason he took a break from comedy back in those early days.

In 1999, having only ever done six gigs before, Manford won the City Life North West Comedian of the Year Award, and the following year was named Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year. Six years into his career, he was shortlisted for the Edinburgh Comedy Award (then called the Perrier) for his show, Urban Legends, and has won bundles of other accolades since then, including for his Sunday Absolute Radio show.

His latest tour, A Manford All Seasons, will see Jason play over 175 dates in 2025, with a gig at York Barbican on Saturday May 10. It’s packed full of the winning comedy he’s become known for, much of it reflecting the fact that he now has six children, three of them teenagers.

“I want audiences to forget about the stresses of the day, and to leave feeling positive,” he says. “A lot of the show is about where I am in my life, with things changing very quickly. 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. Comparing my childhood to my children’s is a rich source of comedy, but it’s all upbeat.”

He’s keen to avoid going down the “aren’t they a nightmare at that age?” route, though, and it’s all underpinned by obvious affection. There’s some lovely material, for example, looking at the anatomy of “dad jokes”.

Jason effortlessly blends humour with heart, cementing his status as an all-rounder entertainer. His ability to approach it gently from all angles means he regularly sees people bringing their own teenagers to the show, and he often gets three generations of the same family in.

“I love that,” he says. “I’m like a gateway comedian to the harder stuff. I really like that, and I find myself very comfortable in that space of someone you feel you can sort of bring anyone to the show.”

Tickets from JasonManford.com.