TV quiz chaser and comedian to top the bill at the inaugural Jason Manford Comedy Club night at Burnley Mechanics

Laughter will be ringing out at the Burnley Mechanics Theatre when the Jason Manford Comedy Club rolls into town in June.

Four funnymen are lined up for the inaugural club night on Saturday June 18^th, including top of the bill Paul Sinha – well-known as one of the six chasers on the ITV quiz show, The Chase.

Sinha, a former GP, began performing stand-up while working as a junior hospital doctor in the 1990s. After several years of combining touring with his promising medical career, Sinha's breakthrough came with his second solo Edinburgh Festival show, Saint or Sinha?, which earned him a prestigious If.Comedy (formerly the Perrier Comedy Award) nomination.

He has presented and featured in several shows for BBC Radio 4 and has hosted his own quiz show for ITV, called Paul Sinha's TV Showdown, featuring celebrities who go head to head together in a bid to answer as many questions as they can on TV knowledge.

Manford’s comedy nights are hugely popular all over the country, with a troupe of funnymen and women hand-picked to ply their trade under the Manford banner.

Salford-born Manford, who is also an actor, singer and TV presenter, has been putting his name to the comedy club nights for several years. And as regular attendees will know, the line-ups can sometimes change with well-known names and faces making surprise appearances – John Bishop, Sarah Millican, Russell Kane and even Michael McIntyre have been known to play a Manford’s gig night.

“We’re really pleased to add the Manford’s Comedy Club night to our diverse array of events at the Mechanics Theatre. There really is something for everyone, regardless of their age and taste. This promises to be a fantastically funny night with the opportunity to see a TV personality in a role that launched his career and not one everyone will be acquainted with,” says Mark Dempsey BLC’s Head of Culture and Hospitality.

Joining Sinha at the Mechanics is MC Matt Reed, along with Peter Brush and Sam Serrano.

Born and bred in Sunderland, Reed is considered to be one of the finest comperes in the business and is described as ‘insanely funny and charming, as pleasant as he is wonderfully brutal’ in destroying would-be hecklers.

Brush, meanwhile, is said to possess an arsenal of razor-sharp one-liners and peerlessly original routines, all delivered in an amusingly awkward fashion. Formerly a BBC New Comedy Award finalist, he has also written for several BBC Radio 4 comedy shows.

Serrano, who is only 21, is described as ‘one to watch’ after finishing runner-up in the Great Yorkshire Fringe Comedian of the Year Competition in 2018, and the LGBT Comedian of the Year in 2019. Described as ‘gender fluid’, Serrano was also a finalist in the Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year in 2019.

Tickets for the night cost £14 and the show begins at 8pm. Admittance is strictly over-18s only, and as already stated, the line up is subject to change.

It’s hoped the Jason Manford Comedy Club nights will become a monthly feature at the Mechanics next year.

To book tickets, visit the Mechanics Theatre website here.