Jason Manford recalls his family's drunken antics

Jason Manford has recalled how his parents got escorted out of the biggest gig of his life after getting drunk and heckling him.

The comic paid for a corporate box - and an open bar - for his mum, dad and 14 of their friends at his first hometown gig in Manchester Arena,

‘I said to my parents I want you come along and enjoy the gig. I’ll cover the bill,’ he told Rob Brydon on his podcast. ‘But what my mum heard was "free" – which is a different thing!

‘They got absolutely hammered. So drunk in the first half. I was geeing heckled In an arena. And when you’re getting heckled by family it’s really hard because you can hear your dad going "that never happened! You made that up!" Neighbouring boxes were complaining about the noise and chat.’

Manford recalled how during the interval his tour manager  told him how he stopped the fourth bottle of brandy going into the box – because the comic’s mum had been texting all her many friends and family:  ‘Don’t bother going to the bar, come to the box, it’s all free!’

The stand-up continued: ‘Afterwards, I come of stage, it’s the biggest gig of my life, I’m proud of myself, it’s gone well, and I come down the steps and I see four security guards holding my mother up… taking her to the car park. My dad’s the same, he’s like a sloth, he’s hammered.’

As they left the venue, the arena’s manager told Manford: ‘Your family were the worst behaved family of any performer we’ve ever had - and we’ve had The Pogues!’

And when the comic told his father that in his drunken state, he was delighted, replying: ‘That’s brilliant! We never win anything in our family.’

Published: 23 Apr 2021