Comedian Jason Manford recently shared his bittersweet experience of hosting the Royal Variety Performance, revealing a cheeky jibe at Prince Andrew in the process. Speaking to Vogue Williams on her podcast, Jason recounted how his dream gig in 2020 was marred by the pandemic: “And of course, 2020 kicks in, pandemic. I still get to do it, but there’s no audience.”
The event was filmed under strict lockdown measures, leaving Jason performing to a virtual crowd: “I just did it to a bank of 300 TVs. It was like doing a gig in front of Dixons’ window.”
Without an audience, the essential laughter that fuels a comedian’s performance was missing. Despite this, Jason was confident in his material, which focused on the peculiarities of lockdown life.
He had tested his jokes during Zoom livestreams and unique drive-in shows where audience reactions came in the form of car horns: “You were just on stage and they tuned their radios in [to the PA system frequency]. And if they thought it was funny, they’d beep their horns. It was so weird.”
However, for the Royal Variety Performance, not even the sound of beeping could save him from the eerie silence: “I got to sort of mid afternoon and I thought, this is going to be so hard to do with no laughter.
“So I found the sound department guy and I said, can you play in some laughter? And he said, ‘Yeah, but where?’ I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll tell you where’.
“I sat with him with my scripts and I literally went through them and said, ‘that’ll be a chuckle, that’ll be a guffaw. Hey, that might get a round of applause’. Honestly, I did and I put all my own laughs in.”
Crafting his own laugh track was the perfect solution for Jason, who declares: “Best gig I’ve ever had. I absolutely ripped it.”
Yet, Jason recalls the absence of Royal presence as the only downside: “No Royals, not one Royal. Not even Prince Andrew came,” he added humorously, “and he was definitely free.”
Jason is optimistic about getting another shot at performing for the Royal Variety, but in the meantime, he’s gearing up to display his hosting chops at the star-studded Big Night of Musicals event at Manchester’s AO Arena this week.
The glittering lineup includes Michael Ball, Ruthie Henshall, Steps’ Faye Tozer, and the casts from blockbuster productions such as Chicago, Mary Poppins, Mean Girls, and Disney’s Hercules.
The musical extravaganza is set to air on BBC One at 6.50pm on Saturday (March 22), followed by streaming on iPlayer.