Review: Jason Manford at the Cambridge Corn Exchange
Although he's been around for quite a while, I’d actually only recently discovered Jason Manford. As a fan of a number of northern comedians, I quite liked what I saw and decided to pop down to the Cambridge Corn Exchange on Wednesday, January 19.
Opening his own show - titled Like Me - Salford-born Jason came out before the support act and recalled his early days on the comedy circuit, recounting an embarrassing time he went on after Peter Key and told the same joke that Peter Kay had just told (Jason said he’d got it from his dad).
He also noted that as the show had kept getting postponed for two years, around half of the audience were probably with a different partner now that when they first bought their tickets...
Support act Maisie Adam came on and told stories about, among other things, how she ended up with her new hairstyle, smear tests, and joining a lesbian football team in Brighton.
Back came Jason for the ‘main show’ - an entertaining and thought-provoking set which mainly dealt with the pandemic and the lockdowns, although there were also some intriguing observations about relationships and ageing (he turned 40 last year).
The likeable star mused over what our grandchildren might ask us in the future about the pandemic and examined some of the more ridiculous aspects of the past two years, including the tier system.
At one point, the house lights went up for a game Jason had devised called ‘Which non-essential worker had the most non-essential job?’ during the pandemic. Members of the audience raised their hands and yelled out their jobs. In the end, the prize (a bottle of an alcoholic drink) went to a woman who works in a vegan chocolate factory.
The anecdotes, which included an embarrassing experience in a Chinese sauna and the story of a woman who drinks smoothies containing a rather surprising ingredient, were generally very funny and the near-capacity crowd certainly seemed to be enjoying it - although personally I didn’t find myself laughing to a point where I could hardly breathe, but then stand-up is highly subjective...
The closest I came to that was when Jason recalled a teacher from Northern Ireland when he was at school, and the impersonation was absolutely hilarious. Drawing laughter, as well as a warm sense of nostalgia, was a bit about school assemblies and the songs we used to sing. Needless to say, the star got us singing some of them.
In all, a satisfying night full of laughter, and some singing, in what was my first comedy gig of 2022. It’s good to be back. For more on Jason Manford, and to check on tour dates, go to jasonmanford.com.
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