New Year, New Comedians

There’s a common saying in the entertainment industry: when you reach certain heights during your career it’s only right that you ‘send the lift back down' – shorthand for helping those at the bottom of your profession with the knowledge you’ve gained on your way up. Of course, as one gets more comfortable at the ‘top’ there is often the opposite problem, that of pulling up the ladder behind you – or, to better suit the elevator metaphor, cutting the lift cable and laughing maniacally at the firebomb emanating from the ground floor. Sometimes this is through contempt, sometimes through fear, of the young upstarts who might attempt to usurp you. Alex Boardman, however, has different ideas: "If you’re good then you’re not frightened. If someone’s as good as me after two years where I’ve been going 20 then that’s my fault."

Boardman runs New Comedians, a monthly show at the Comedy Store that, you guessed it, features new and sometimes untested comedians playing to an ever-growing crowd. Boardman hand-picks these young guns from his time on the circuit: "There’s loads of comedians that are desperate to get on; lots of clubs don’t do advancement like they used to, so I’m getting a lot of acts from London, Newcastle, Scotland who are saying, 'Can I come and do it?'" If he hasn’t seen them then he’ll take a recommendation from a fellow comic he trusts. "We’ve had over 100 acts, and of them only three have done badly. The three people who haven’t done well are people I hadn’t seen so I’ve had to tighten it up."

A brief history of Manchester's comedy scene

Boardman came up with the likes of Johnny Vegas, Peter Kay and Dave Gorman on the Manchester scene – not that 20 years ago there really was a Manchester scene. He explains: "There was Red Raw at the Burton Arms that Gorman hosted, and Buzz in Chorlton but that was it. Chorlton was seen as exotic back then, you’d do those gigs and then you’d have to wait a year to do them again. I probably only did six gigs in my first year. I was gigging at The Glee in Birmingham and at The Stand in Edinburgh but there was nothing in Manchester."

Then with The Frog and Bucket opening its doors there was an upswing in live comedy in the city; a few years later the Comedy Store opened up a Manchester branch and XS Malarkey began its nomadic lifestyle across the pubs and bars of South Manchester. "There was an explosion at the end of the 90s, because raving had died. Round about 94/95 when Steve Coogan had gotten big with Paul Calf, live comedy just became a thing. Obviously it existed and it was a great folk tradition but it wasn’t something people sought to make a living out of. I mean, karaoke was still massive at that point! Comedy wasn’t really seen as a business."

Back in those heady post-rave, not-so-Madchester days, Boardman says there was a much more experimental circuit. "We were allowed to fail when we were new. It’s harder now because they have to be polished right away and it kind of nullifies creativity. If you’re an act and you’re like, 'Oh I want the audience to like this,' then they’re writing the material, not you. And that’s wrong. That’s not going to ever be interesting." With comedy clubs being in a financially more precarious situation than they might have been before people could easily access stand-up and such online, they are less likely to take risks on young upstarts – which led Boardman to step in. After hosting a number of gong shows but not seeing much progression, he was hoping to give an outlet to talented but obscure acts.

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More from Comedy:

 Funny Looking: Gav Cross on bringing obscure comedy to Liverpool

 Outrage and role models – an interview with Doug Stanhope

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"There’s enough people that are winning these competitions but not quite getting paid 15s yet. Or 20s. That leap from 5-15 minutes to a 20-minute set is huge. It just wasn’t being catered for." Having been offered a chance to put a new night on each month of his choice, Boardman decided to be the helping hand that he had had from his early days on the circuit. He talks excitedly about the acts he’s managed to get on, acts whose potential he could see in a brief five-minute set. Many of them we’ve featured in our Spotlight section, such as Danny Sutcliffe, Liam Pickford, Rachel Fairburn and Kiri Pritchard-McLean. "For some of them it’s their first paying gig, and that’s a really nice thing. Especially when it’s a packed room."

Over the last three years, New Comedians has grown thanks to the support from the Comedy Store, starting in the downstairs area of the Deansgate Locks club, before quickly moving to the main room when lack of space demanded it. For a new acts night on a Sunday to require more than 100 seats is in itself a remarkable feat. That they keep coming back is down to Boardman’s excellent taste and unflinching confidence in the acts he has put forward.

"Sometimes an audience won’t get somebody if it’s a particularly avant-garde thing, but the success rate from the people we’ve had on has been pretty high. We had Gein’s [Family Giftshop] on before they did well in Edinburgh. It’s a stand-up night and we had a sketch group on who were struggling to get gigs because they did sketch. They were having to put their own gigs on and they weren’t really doing enough live stuff."

The success of New Comedians

In the last year or so the night has been fortunate enough to fall on a number of special occasions occurring on the third Sunday of the month, Father’s Day being one such event, which led to a staggering 250 near-sell-out audience: "If you’re a brand new act, we have two open spots and if you’re doing your first ever gig at the Comedy Store that’s amazing. It doesn’t get much better." The differing styles of the new comedians is not always taken in the best way, of course. "We had a couple of dads who’d been dragged along who didn’t really want to be there. But that’s great. We want to do a broad range of styles. It’s not going to be for everybody. That’s what’s great about it."

In his role as shepherd to the new herd of talent around the country he often recommends acts he’s seen flourish after being given the chance to do so through New Comedians. With gigging all over the country for the last twenty years and writing for the likes of John Bishop and numerous TV shows, Boardman doesn’t need to do this night, but it’s his love of comedy that keeps him going and paying forward the good will he was shown as a young performer all those years ago. "I’ve seen lots of people, some of whom are famous, be horrible to new acts. But I’d imagine that they’re the kinds of people who are just horrible to waitresses, I imagine they’re just horrible to people." He laughs. "You don’t have to be a prick. It’s a conscious decision. Just don’t be a prick."

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Alex Boardman’s picks from the last year

Gregor Burns
“An ex-forces stand up from north of the border with a flowing style and uncompromising material.”

Lee Peart 
“A highly camp newcomer with a charming personality and a cutting delivery. He absolutely ripped the roof off the gig.”

Chris Kehoe
“A comic really trying to say something different... Brilliant material that is both clever and laugh-out-loud funny.”

Rauol Kholi
“A Geordie who absolutely owns the stage and brings great energy to every performance."

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New Comedians with Alex Boardman runs at the Comedy Store on the third Sunday of every month

Appearing for New Comedians on Sun 17 Jan: Adam Rowe, Dom Woodward and Graham Milton

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