HE has performed stand-up in some of the UK’s biggest venues including the O2 Arena.

But Jason Manford admitted that returning to the comedy club scene and seeing the whites of people’s eyes has been scarier than that. The multi award-winning comic is celebrating two years since the successful launch of Manford’s Comedy Club.

Jason joined forces with his brother Colin to introduce stand-up nights to small towns around the country, particularly in the north west. The idea of the shows is to provide a decent platform for the many comics on the circuit and bring live comedy to places it is not usually experienced.

But Jason, along with his celebrity friends like John Bishop, Sarah Millican, Russell Kane and Michael McIntyre are known to occasionally drop by.

The 35-year-old from Salford said: “It’s actually harder when you’re used to do doing the theatres and arenas and then you come back to do a little club. It’s really hard because you can see all their faces. Doing the clubs make you better because when you’re doing the theatres your pace is slightly slower because you’ve got to keep people’s attention for an hour and a half or two hours.

“So you can’t be blasting out a gag every five seconds because people would get exhausted whereas in the clubs you can do a 20 minute set which is just rat-a-tat-tat. Any of our headliners, over the space of 20 minutes, are as good if not better than most comics you see on TV.

“That’s what I really love about putting my name next to the clubs is that I can guarantee it. We’ve never had one person ask for their money back or say they didn’t enjoy it. It’s been great.”

Colin started out as a stand-up comedian in 2010 following in his brother Jason’s footsteps. He is invaluable when it comes to booking acts for Manford’s Comedy Club because he is closer to the circuit. Meanwhile, Jason uses his industry contacts to give emerging comics the best exposure.

Colin said: “I started a night in Huddersfield. I’d been running small scale nights for a while and I wanted to step up a bit. So I worked really hard on this event and it was a big success and on the back of that we had a couple more venues come forward.

“That’s when Jason and I sat down because Jason wanted to do something similar and get back to the circuit. We hit the ground running from there.”

Jason added: “Colin was on the circuit doing some gigs and we both noticed there was a bit of a gap in quality when it came to the clubs. There were the quality clubs – your Comedy Stores and Glee Clubs and stuff like that – and then there was this huge gulf between them and the next level.”

That is how it all began and now the brothers have booked more than 260 comedians to entertain more than 40,000 people in 57 different locations across the country.

Jason said: It’s massively important for new and emerging comedians to have these kinds of platforms. Colin is a bit more knowledgeable on newer comics than I am. But it’s been great for me as I’ve got a show on Sunday on Absolute Radio and every so often Colin will ring me up and go: ‘This person is absolutely nailing it in the clubs. Why don’t you get them on the show and give them a boost?’

“That’s been invaluable to me as a way to introduce some new names to my fans. Also I’ve got direct connections with TV producers and they’re always desperate for new talent

“That’s been a big thing as well being able to tell them about who we’re working with. It’s interesting because even if a comic is new to you as a punter it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re new.

“There’s hundreds of comedians who were gigging years before I started. For whatever reason they haven’t made it – they didn’t look right, they weren’t in the right place at the right time, they’ve never done TV – but there is a lot of quality there.”

Jason and Colin reckon there is nothing better than discovering a great comedian in a live setting.

“It’s like with music,” Jason said.

“It’s like discovering someone before they’ve made it. It feels special and unique and because it’s live anything can happen. You don’t know who’s going to join in or what’s going to happen. There’s always an element of magic that you won’t get with anything else.

“What’s been great has been seeing some comics come through who are now going to start hitting TV. There’s people like Sofie Hagen who is on the next series of 8 Out Of 10 Cats. Hopefully they will be household names at some point.”

We last spoke to Jason when he was part of the cast for Danny Brocklehurst’s BBC drama, Ordinary Lies. The first series was filmed in Warrington, primarily at John Stuart Car Superstore in Orford Lane, and was watched by more than six million people. But producers decided to set series two with different characters in a national sports goods company.

Jason, who played car salesman Marty, added: “A lot of times in TV series they’re trying to fake warmth and friendship so it comes across on screen. But we had that both on and off screen by total random coincidence of personalities. We had such a laugh. We were really close friends and that came across.

“But I accept that they made their decision. I would have loved to have made a second series with those same guys again. But I can sort of see their point. It would have been a bit weird if we kept lying and not changing our ways...”

Manford’s Comedy Club is at The Brindley in Runcorn on December 15. Visit manfordscomedyclub.com/gigs