Jason Manford has leaped to fellow comedian and close pal Peter Kay’s defence after the TV and stand up star has thrown hecklers out of his shows during his tour
Jason Manford has defended his close pal Peter Kay for throwing out hecklers from his show – saying it “gets a bit much” and risks ruining the night for everyone.
Funnyman Jason, also on his own stand up tour at the moment, was responding to the incident in February when he was forced to kick out two rowdy revellers in Manchester. And last night Peter again stepped in during his gig at London’s O2 when noisy audience members threatened to ruin things.
Jason, who described pal Peter as “a national treasure”, said part of the problem is people see comedians being heckled on social media. Stand ups are happy to share those clips as they don’t ruin material from their routines which they need to use for months on tour. But that has backfired and made some people think heckling is part of the night.
READ MORE: Peter Kay threatens to throw fans out of O2 show as they ‘kick off’ in audience
“No one’s derailed my show, I’ve not had to shout security on this tour, but it is annoying,” he said, before turning to discuss the problems Peter Kay has had recently. “Most of us have worked on a show and we would love to tell it to you. I can only imagine for Peter someone derailing the show shouting so many times, it does get a bit much.”
Referring to Peter throwing people out, he added: “If anything, it just re-educates everybody to go, ‘oh, yeah, let’s not do that’, you know.
“And I think if you speak to 99% of an audience, they’ll also go, we’d rather listen to the person, especially someone like Peter, who you’ve waited two years to see. So it’s different in that respect.
“But that’s not to say, I’m sure, earlier on, there were moments where Peter was dealing with it in a humorous, funny way, and getting laughs out of it. But after five or six times it, you know, especially if someone gets you just before a punch line or something, it starts to ruin your flow as well. And it’s only happened to me maybe once or twice and I came off stage and when they left, I came back on stage I got a big cheer and got on with it.”
Peter’s Better Late Than Never Again! Tour has been running for years and will continue into 2026.
Jason added: “I saw Peter’s show early on in its infancy when he was first working on it, and, and that was great. And we had a couple of days of just sort of talking about it and talking about the stories and jokes and stuff, and he tells a story about my brother that happened. So, yeah, he’s great.
“You know, he’s this national treasure, isn’t, you know? So it’s just a treat to be in the room with him.”
Jason was speaking ahead of him fronting a TV show this weekend on BBC1. He returns to host and perform at The National Lottery ’s Big Night of Musicals, bringing together theatre’s biggest shows to mark 30 years of The National Lottery supporting and funding over 20,000 theatre related projects.
Were you at Peter Kay’s O2 show or will you be at his Manchester gig tonight? Email webcelebs@mirror.co.uk
Big Night of Musicals airs on BBC One and iPlayer on Saturday(March 22). Jason is currently on his UK stand up tour called A Manford All Seasons.
