Describe your job in one sentence
I'm a comedy consultant. I am a promoter and to an extent, I'm a performer, but mainly I'm a consultant.
Why did you decide to begin a career in comedy?
I didn't. I fell into it by mistake. I wanted to be funny and it's something I'd always fancied doing. I wanted to perform for people and make them laugh. But there weren't any comedy clubs in those days, the only place you could go was to a folk club. I tried to make things folk friendly, like doing comedy poems rather than straight stand up. I quite enjoyed it so I open up my own folk club, but it was more towards comedy. It had some musical acts on, but I was compereing it. That was in affect a comedy club, but I didn't know it at the time.
Why did you choose that path of promoter over performer?
Because I'm not that good as a performer. Once I realised how good other people were, I thought I was all right, but realising there were some brilliant people out there it soon became obvious that I'd die on my bum if I went to comedy clubs and performed. I proudly can say to this day that I've never had a paid gig from anybody else. You only ever see me perform at my own clubs to save money.
What personal qualities do you need to be a promoter?
As a promoter, you have to be pushy and you've to be hard working and do your homework. You have to do the flyers make your press contacts.
What type of gig was your first comedy night?
It was a folk club. When I moved to The Buzz, Chorlton, Manchester a massive venue, and I saw it as an opportunity to put more that two people on the stage so I used to put bands on with comedians - I'd have a world music dance band, Someone like Harry Hill would come on, then the dance band would come back on. That's how it started, then after about nine months I realised I'd go two separate audiences. So, I put comedy on one night and music on the other night. It sort of evolved into a comedy club. I didn't think 'ooh, I'll open a comedy club' like people do these days because that concept wasn't really around. When your one of the first to do it its quite difficult - there's no comedy listings - do you put it in theatre or gigs? There wasn't anywhere for comedy.
Strangely enough, I rang up City Life Magazine in Manchester to complain about folk club listings and they said 'why do you write the folk listings yourself?' Most people came through the folk circuit in the early days, Billy Connolly, Jasper Carrot, Mike Harding etc... before comedy clubs came around, and they were the only places to play.
What was it like?
I had various things go wrong. I didn't invest in the sound equipment. The bands said they had their own equipment and we could use that for the PA. They arrived late, for a start, the sound wasn't very good so I realised straight away you needed a sound engineer working if it's a big gig. So, I'd say my first gig wasn't that successful. I learnt quite a bit from it. The comic I'd put on, I thought was quite funny, I realised he wasn't really. Overall, looking back, it was pretty disastrous.
Did anyone complain?
No, but personally for me it was a bit of a nightmare. But you learn from doing things wrong
What factors do you look at when you set up a new night?
The main criterion is the space. The size, sightlines, raised stage, lights, bar location, big pillars, are the seats facing the right way... The room is the most important thing. A comedy club will work in any town or city if the space is right. It has to have enough capacity to cover the costs of a night of comedy, paying three or four acts; ideally, you'll need a room to fit 100 people in to make it work.
What makes a great comedy night?
First of all the people have to go along and be expecting a comedy night - you can't throw a party and put a comedian on. People have to be paying money to see comedy and first be there for that reason. Secondly, they have to be tightly packed in to give a great atmosphere, and obviously, the sound a light has to be right and the quality of the acts, they have to be funny. Sounds obvious!
