Comedy

Fame, so the cliché goes, is a fickle beast. A bit like a pet leopard, in fact: it adds excitement to your life and attracts many an admiring look in the street – but one wrong move and it can turn on you in an instant. Nobody knows this better than Jason Manford. One week he’s riding high in twin careers: as the family-friendly stand-up from ‘Eight Out of Ten Cats’, and as a primetime TV host on BBC1’s ‘The One Show’, just hitting his stride having replaced Adrian Chiles back in August. And the next week, he’s splashed shamefaced in the tabloids, announcing his decision to quit his plum presenting job. It’s all a bit unfortunate, to put it mildly. I’d interviewed Manford a few days prior to his ‘online sex scandal’ breaking. He was about to announce a string of big stand-up dates, and I was there to talk about his rapid rise from the panel show rabble to arena-filling comedy star – ironically it was his high profile that would soon trip him up. A week later we spoke again as he tried to manage the media storm that ensued. Between the two encounters, the difference in him was striking.

Interview 1: November 2

Having met Jason Manford in a bar in Shepherd’s Bush I was enjoying shooting the breeze with a happy-go-lucky comedian at the top of his game. Outside, the wind was throwing autumnal leaves at passers-by like a meteorological general sending his troops into a blustery battle. But inside the conditions were far more tranquil. Manford was clearly relaxed, spreading himself over the sofa as expansively as a bodyguard shielding a ward from a paparazzo. He came across as a big puppy dog of a man, full of enthusiasm and easy, affable humour. At that point, he was exactly what you’d expect from a man who just a few months previously had landed one of TV’s top presenting jobs. At that point.

You’re doing arena dates on your tour. Is comedy now as big business as rock ’n’ roll?
‘When we did the “Help for Heroes” gig at Twickenham, I was backstage with Michael McIntyre and another couple of comics, and we all went: “This is too big. This is why comedy isn’t rock ’n’ roll. You can do rock ’n’ roll in this venue. But you can’t do comedy in a stadium.” There’s a limit to it, and the arenas are the limit. It’s as big as you can get. I think that in 20 years’ time, we’ll look back and say: “That was the best time to be a comic.” TV seems to be giving us more chances than ever, and that’s translating to bums on seats. We’re at our peak at the moment, and we’re all riding it as best we can.’

Have you been star-struck by any of your ‘One Show’ guests?
‘We had Quincy Jones on, and he asked us out for dinner afterwards. I got home that night, and thought: Already, this show has been worth doing.’ Feature continues

With more than 200,000 followers, you’re known as a prolific Twitter user. Ever made any tweeting faux pas?
'I don’t know. Because I delete them straight away. The great thing about Twitter is that you’re right there talking to people. For me, with all the travelling I do, it just keeps me company. When I fancy it, I can talk to 200,000 people. If I’m on the train for two hours, I think: Oh, I’ll have a chat with this lot. Of course there are sneaky journalists there following you that you can’t keep tabs on. But then I know that whenever I tweet anything, it could potentially be picked up.’

Are there any downsides to Twitter?
‘It’s one of those things, Twitter, that can really wind you up. There are some days you think: Oh, sod this. Most of the people on there are lovely, but all you need is one dickhead and it can ruin your day. I can take: “Oh, he’s not very funny”, or “He’s not very good at presenting”. But it’s when people question your niceness, you think: But I’m not a wanker. Honestly, I’m genuinely a nice fella.’

Maybe Twitter’s not a great place for sensitive people…
‘There’s a comic who I’ve just convinced to come back to Twitter who’s said exactly that. You just have to ignore the bad stuff. But some days, yeah, fucking hell… I think: Why do I bother? Comedy’s one of those weird things that makes people angry. I remember Peter [Kay] saying to me once: “Nobody gets angry at any other art form.” You don’t people getting mad at drama. No one ever goes into work on a Monday and goes: “Did you see ‘Taggart’ last night? WHAT A LOAD OF SHIT!” But for some reason people get really angry about comedy. It’s very odd.’

Interview 2: November 12

Two days after wrapping up our original interview, I found myself being screamed at by a tabloid front page. ‘ONE SHOW JASON’S TWITTER SEX SHAME’, it salivated, running down the details of how the married dad-of-two – with a third child on the way – had been tweeting a 22-year-old fan, asking her to send him topless photos, with the last tweet having taken place three days prior to our chat. It’s the kind of thing that can turn your world upside down overnight, particularly when a few days earlier you’d been so vocally extolling the virtues of Twitter. So I got him on the phone to ask him how it had changed his outlook. This time, he was far less relaxed. The voice on the phone was hesitant, soft and, at times, uncertain of how to respond. The sense of humour was still there – the odd, gentle chuckle greeted my attempts to lighten the mood – but rather than a carefree entertainer, this was now a man who was trying to maintain a sense of perspective and carry on, despite his life having become fodder for people hungry for some thigh-rubbing prurience. His Twitter feed – once something he’d embraced as a world of human contact on long, lonely train journeys – had lain unused for nearly a fortnight. But – at that point in time at any rate – the show had to go on… along with the celebrity interviews.

You’ve carried on gigging since the story broke. Has being busy helped?
‘At one point I thought I might just go under the bed, curl up into a ball and stay there. But you have to keep your mind active. Getting out there and meeting people has helped. When you’re at home on your own, your mind wanders and you wonder what people are thinking. So when you get out there and you see people are still cool with you, it makes you feel better. People have been great.’

The shows have been okay, then?
‘Pretty much. People have paid their money and want to see a funny show, so nothing’s changed in that respect. There are a couple of heckles, but I’ve never been beaten by a heckler yet. I’ve had a couple of people shout, “Twitter!” Nothing particularly clever. But then you get other people heckling the heckler. The show hasn’t changed that much.’

But you’ve been forced to talk about it…
‘Yeah, I mention it at the top of the show, just to go: “It’s been a tough couple of days, but the wife’s all right.” She was at the show the other night, actually. Then there’s a little round of applause and we move on. I think people respect that you’re getting on with it and being as professional as you can. Everyone makes mistakes? Yeah, I think so. [Chuckles]. I presume so.’

Is it weird talking about it?
‘I dunno, really. I’d rather crack on and not have to. But it’s the elephant in the room. I think it’d be wrong at this instance to do gags about it, and get ten minutes out of it. At the moment, for me, that’d be a bit weird. But I’ve written a show. It was good before, and it’s good now.’

Would you do gags about it in the future?
‘Who knows? We’ll see. You’ll have to ask me in a year. I don’t know. It’s not going in this show. We’ll have to see. But I don’t think so. It’s not funny yet.’ (Laughs)

What was your reaction when you saw the story?
‘They rang the day before to ask if I had a comment, but I was a bit shocked when I saw it. I spoke to my wife, and said: “This is happening.” We had a chat, and decided to put it behind us. She was all right, really. It was upsetting on the day, as you can imagine. Having a big family has helped. In a sense, it has brought us all even closer together.’

Has it made you reassess how much you can trust people on Twitter?
‘Not just on Twitter: generally. It’s made me realise that being in the public eye, and being good at stuff and successful, you’re never too far away from people trying to sell a story on you. Maybe I’ll be a bit less coy. Obviously I’ll be more careful. Maybe I gave away too much on Twitter, but I just enjoyed chatting to people. I did protect my tweets, but then I turned it off. I haven’t written anything since, so there’s nothing to protect. They’re still up there for all to see. I just haven’t had anything to say.’

Would you give up Twitter?
‘It’s certainly crossed my mind. We’ll see what the situation is in a few weeks. I just haven’t really felt like using it, so I’ve just left it.’

Does your wife want you to?
‘No, not really. It wasn’t like a massive thing. It was big, obviously – it was in the paper and all that – but if I wasn’t on telly, by Monday I don’t think we’d have been talking about it. People make their own decisions, depending on what they read. I’m a nice bloke, and I’m funny, and I work hard. So come and see the show, and judge for yourself. The show’s as funny as it was last week. That’s not changed.’

Last time we spoke, you talked about moving into presenting more than comedy. At times like this, do you appreciate the freedom you get as a stand-up comic more?
‘No, I enjoy TV as well. They complement each other. You’ve got to try to get people into the theatres to watch you, and the only way to do that is by doing telly. They go hand in hand. I love doing “The One Show”, and working with Alex, so I don’t want that to stop any time soon. Life is still the same as it was last Thursday.’

Crisis: November 19

Life is no longer ‘the same as it was last Thursday’. Manford’s back on a tabloid front page. But this time the story’s lurching towards the reader’s heartstrings. ‘I QUIT OVER WEB SEX WITH 12 GIRLS’ is accompanied by a series of photos with Manford’s hand apparently Superglued to his face, and pink-tinged eyeballs cast to the floor, as though they were taken with a photographer barking, ‘Give us some tears, Jase! Think of how your kids will feel!’ Inside, he talks of how he’s stepped down from ‘The One Show’ to concentrate on his family, admitting to ‘internet sex sessions’ via Skype and flirting with 12 women over Twitter. Hours later, those signed in to Twitter are told his feed has been ‘suspended’. And this time his publicist tells me that talking to him is not an option. But my mind goes back to quotes from our second, post-tabloid-splash interview: ‘If I wasn’t on telly, by Monday I don’t think we’d have been talking about it,’ and ‘I love doing “The One Show”… so I don’t want that to stop.’

Significantly, in the paper he’s gone from referring to himself as ‘a nice bloke’ to an ‘arsehole’. Either way, Manford’s episode, if it reveals anything, has been a whirlwind tour of the dark side of fame. It vividly illustrates the fact that when you’re on top of the world, all it means is that you’re standing atop a shifting morass, filled with hands grasping to pull you under. And it also shows how a sense of ‘loneliness’ on tour can affect a star’s behaviour. ‘It’s such a weird world online,’ he tells The Sun. ‘People throw themselves at you,’ hinting at a world where the more you bask in the adulation of the nation, the more your lifestyle denies you access to those close to you. Which brings emptiness at the same time as hordes of fans – many offering the tantalising promise of human intimacy. And how do you maintain a sense of perspective in the face of that? A quick search on Twitter reveals responses that are largely sympathetic. So to his fans, it looks like Manford’s reputation will survive. Fingers crossed that next time we talk, we can stick to theorising about comedy.

 Jason Manford is at the Hammersmith Apollo , Tue Nov 23-Thur Nov 25 and O2 Arena Nov 29 2011.