Ryan Gleeson, the owner of the Comedy Station Comedy Club, talks to us all about the upcoming Blackpool Comedy Festival.
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00:00Hi, I'm district reporter Amy Seddon and I've just come back from the media launch for the Blackpool Comedy Festival which runs between May 24th and June 1st.
00:11The event was held at the Comedy Station Comedy Club and whilst there I chatted to the club's owner all about the festival and the venue's input. Take a look next.
00:21Hello, I'm Ryan Gleeson. I'm the owner and the compare of the Comedy Station Comedy Club and one of the organisers of the Blackpool Comedy Festival.
00:30And we're in the club right now. What were we doing here today?
00:33We today had the official press launch of the 2025 Blackpool Comedy Festival which is by far the biggest festival that we've ever done.
00:44I 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.
01:01There are a couple of venues. It's now something for everybody, absolutely everywhere.
01:06And why did you want to do a launch now, quite a few weeks before it starts?
01:10To give people enough time to plan because Blackpool has a huge footfall.
01:17You know, millions, 20 something million people are coming here.
01:20They already know what's on, they already know what they're going to see and they're going to do.
01:24So by launching it weeks ahead, we are hoping to bring people to Blackpool that may not necessarily have been before
01:31that perhaps don't think it's that good and proven wrong.
01:34And how are you feeling with it only being three weeks away?
01:38I feel fine at the moment. It's three weeks away, which for me is eternity.
01:47One 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.
02:00And yourself, you're from Blackpool?
02:02I grew up in Thornton, yeah, so I'm a local, local person, local guy, lived here all my life.
02:09I've done stand-up. 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
02:24because that's something that had been missing since I'd say in the 60s even.
02:31There 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.
02:41So, 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.
02:53And is it fair to say that Blackpool Comedy Festival is perhaps the biggest example of your aim being achieved so far?
03:01Yes. 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.
03:15We're the three main drivers of this. We also have Ruth and Keith that are organising events, shows and other things around.
03:24Then again, there are venues and locations and tourism. Beard have also helped out and Beard have helped.
03:32We've got every single aspect of Blackpool is joining in on something that benefits everybody other than just themselves.
03:39And that's not something that you see very often in Blackpool these days.
03:43I don't think there's ever been that I can think of something that the whole town has worked towards for a mutually beneficial event.
03:55After doing a lot of work behind the scenes, do you get on stage at any point over the festival?
04:01This year, I will not be on stage at all. This is the first time that I won't be doing anything visible.
04:10So we have three tour shows that are coming here, UK national tours that are coming here with Harry Stachini.
04:18On Wednesday, he's bringing his debut tour, Grenade, to Blackpool.
04:23Then on Thursday, we have Justin Morehouse with the greatest performance of his life, is the name of his show.
04:29If 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.
04:42And then on Friday, we have Rob Mulholland, who is more of an adult content than the other two.
04:51He's the host of one of the UK's biggest comedy podcasts, Dead Men Talking.
04:57He's one of my very, very good friends and I'm very much looking forward to bringing his tour here.
05:02This 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.
05:08So, yeah, been a nice break for me, but not my wife or staff, unfortunately.
05:15So I'm going to pay for that, I think.
05:18You've mentioned three acts there that you sound really excited for, but I was next going to ask,
05:22is there a highlight of the festival for you that you can't wait for?
05:26It goes without saying, the biggest part of the festival is the Saturday night show at the Opera House,
05:33which is organised by Manfred's Comedy Clubs.
05:37I've worked with them since they first started.
05:41Jason Manfred and I started around a similar time to each other and used to gig quite regularly together.
05:47Don'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.
05:57But I'm here in Blackpool as a clue.
06:02But their show is amazingly strong, ridiculously strong.
06:07You will never see a line-up like this on any comedy club circuit, but it's been run like a comedy club night,
06:12which is why we've decided we're not going to open or put our shows on.
06:15So the Saturday night is headlined by Russell Howard, who I should not need to introduce or explain who he is.
06:23Everybody knows who he is.
06:24We also have Maisie Adam and Emmanuel Sanubi.
06:29And the, for my money, best compare in the country, Hayley Ellis.
06:36It's a ridiculously strong show and I'm very much looking forward to spending some time backstage with them
06:41because that's going to be a very fun green room.
06:43You've done a great job of persuading me to go to that show, but why overall should the people of Lancashire get involved in Blackpool Comedy Festival?
06:51People should definitely get involved in Blackpool Comedy Festival 2025 because, firstly, it's Blackpool.
07:00There are many festivals around similar times, comedy festivals at other towns and other places.
07:06But this is in a town where the only industry is hospitality and entertainment.
07:11So this is something that this town knows well, does well, and this is literally the thing that we can always show off about.
07:20So if you want to see a festival done good, come and have a look at this one.
07:25Because it sounds like it's a pretty good thing.
07:30And if you want to see a festival, and you're going during traffic, there are two different sets in the hall.
07:35My name is Nicholas.
07:37And the Vo Newton, who serves as an Pitch Company for a movie.
07:40Thank you, sn vedas.
07:41We have a full-time schedule.