We want to prove people wrong about Blackpool says one of Blackpool Comedy Festival's organisers
Yesterday was the official launch of the highly anticipated Blackpool Comedy Festival and one of its organisers spoke to us all about it.
Running between May 23 and June 1, Blackpool Comedy Festival is set to turn the seaside town into the comedy capital of the UK.
Ahead of the festival’s arrival, an officical media launch was held at the Comedy Station Comedy Club, one of the venues that will host some of the events.
The venue, the first ever comedy club in Blackpool, is owned by stand-up comedian Ryan Gleeson who is also one of the organisers of the Blackpool Comedy Festival.
At the launch the Fylde Coast local spoke to us all about why the festival is so important to Blackpool, what people should most look forward to and why everyone should get invovled...
What were we doing here today?
“We today had the official press launch of the 2025 Blackpool Comedy Festival which is by far the biggest festival that we've ever done.I think this, if I'm right, is our fifth year. This year we've grown into a completely town-wide event now rather than just a town centre centric festival or a venue.There are a couple of venues. It's now something for everybody, absolutely everywhere.”
Why did you want to do a launch now, quite a few weeks before it starts?
“To give people enough time to plan because Blackpool has a huge footfall. You know, millions- 20 something million people- are coming here [each year]. They already know what's on, they already know what they're going to see and they're going to do so by launching it weeks ahead, we are hoping to bring people to Blackpool that may not necessarily have been before, that perhaps don't think it's that good and prove them wrong.”
And how are you feeling with it only being three weeks away?
“I feel fine at the moment. It's three weeks away, which for me is eternity.One week away will still feel like eternity and then one day away I will realise that I should have done something over the previous three weeks that I haven't done and then spend that full day panicking, finishing things off.”
And yourself, you're from Blackpool?
“I grew up in Thornton, yeah, so I'm a local, local person, local guy, lived here all my life. I've done stand-up since 1997, since the last millennium I've done comedy, and my goal was always to bring modern, topical, relevant comedy back to Blackpool because that's something that had been missing since I'd say in the 60s even.
“There were no comedy clubs in Blackpool. The nearest gig for me was Manchester, I think, or Liverpool, depending on which way you looked at it. So, for me, I'm passionate about growing Blackpool, showing off the good parts of Blackpool because it does get slated unfairly sometimes, but I'm here to show off the good bits.”
And is it fair to say that Blackpool Comedy Festival is the biggest example of your aim being achieved so far?
“Yes. I can't take all the credit for the festival at all. This is a collaboration between the Comedy Station, Comedy Club, Showtown and the Winter Gardens. We're the three main drivers of this. We also have Ruth and Keith [of Black Live] that are organising events, shows and other things around. Then again, there are other venues and locations and the tourism board have also helped out and BID have helped. We've got every single aspect of Blackpool joining in on something that benefits everybody other than just themselves and that's not something that you see very often in Blackpool these days.I don't think there's ever been that. I can’t think of something that the whole town has worked towards for a mutually beneficial event.”
After doing a lot of work behind the scenes, do you get on stage at any point over the festival?
“This year, I will not be on stage at all. This is the first time that I won't be doing anything visible. So we have three tour shows that are coming here, UK national tours that are coming here, with Harry Stachini on Wednesday -he's bringing his debut tour, Grenade, to Blackpool- then on Thursday, we have Justin Morehouse. ‘The greatest performance of his life’ is the name of his show, if that is true, that's going to be something to be seen because he is amazingly, effortlessly brilliant and one of the best writers of comedy that I think I've ever worked with.
“And then on Friday, we have Rob Mulholland, who is more of an adult content than the other two. He's the host of one of the UK's biggest comedy podcasts, Dead Men Talking. He's one of my very, very good friends and I'm very much looking forward to bringing his tour here. This will be his first tour I think we've hosted here, but we've had him performing here quite regularly on Fridays and Saturday nights.So, yeah, it’s been a nice break for me, but not my wife or staff, unfortunately so I'm going to pay for that, I think.”
You've mentioned three acts there that you sound really excited for but is there a highlight of the festival that you can't wait for?
“It goes without saying, the biggest part of the festival is the Saturday night show at the Opera House, which is organised by Manfred's Comedy Clubs.I've worked with them since they first started. Jason Manfred and I started around a similar time to each other and used to gig quite regularly together. We don't gig together too much now because one of us became very successful and I'll leave that for your guys to guess which one that was but I'm here in Blackpool as a clue!
“But their show is amazingly strong, ridiculously strong. You will never see a line-up like this on any comedy club circuit, but it's been run like a comedy club night, which is why we've decided we're not going to open or put our shows on. So the Saturday night is headlined by Russell Howard, who I should not need to introduce or explain who he is, Everybody knows who he is. We also have Maisie Adam and Emmanuel Sanubi. And then, for my money, the best compere in the country, Hayley Ellis. It's a ridiculously strong show and I'm very much looking forward to spending some time backstage with them because that's going to be a very fun green room.”
Why overall should the people of Lancashire get involved in Blackpool Comedy Festival?
“People should definitely get involved in Blackpool Comedy Festival 2025 because, firstly, it's Blackpool. There are many festivals around similar times, comedy festivals at other towns and other places but this is in a town where the only industry is hospitality and entertainment so this is something that this town knows well, does well, and this is literally the thing that we can always show off about. So if you want to see a festival done good, come and have a look at this one.”