Comic lost the job of tour support

Jason Manford has claimed Paddy McGuinness sacked him as his support act for being 'too funny’.

Manford says he was dropped from the Take Me Out host’s first tour in 2006 for getting too many laughs.

He told MailOnline: ‘I was a club comic at the time, earning £70 a night, in the early Noughties and I got this phone call asking if I wanted to support Paddy McGuinness on tour doing proper theatres.

‘I was told "You’ll be done by 8.15pm and it’s £100 a show", so I was like "yes I will". I snapped their hand off. It certainly beats performing at Leicester Jongleurs and having beer bottles thrown at me.

'I signed up for the whole tour which was around 80 dates, I was thinking I could put down a deposit on a little flat in Manchester or something.

'Around six or seven gigs in I thought I was doing really well as I was "club ready", my act was really polished, but I then got a call from the tour manager and he said to me "they’ve decided to go in a different direction for support. I think you’re a bit too funny".’

However, Manford was generous about McGuinness’s natural wit, saying:  'I’ve got to say, if I was sat around a table now of Harry Hill, Dara O’Briain, Sarah Millican, Peter Kay and Paddy McGuinness, I guarantee Paddy would be the funniest person at that table.

‘In company, he is hilarious. So if he can get whatever he’s got when you’re just talking to him and replicate on stage, he’s onto a winner.’

McGuinness is returning to stand-up next year after an eight-year absence, with Manford also hitting the road. But he was talking to MailOnline to promote The National Lottery’s New Year’s Eve Big Bash, which he is hosting on ITV from 6pm tomorrow.

Published: 30 Dec 2023