Single-handedly covering the Manchester Comedy Festival

By UK Journalism

A department graduate has single-handedly covered the Manchester comedy festival for BBC Online.

James Bentley worked over the 12 day event conducting as many interviews and show reviews as possible, as well as the heats of the City Life Comedian of the Year award, to provide full coverage for BBC Manchester.

He said it was ìdrainingî but also very enjoyable.

ìI reviewed a show on each night of the Comedy Festival. A lot of them didn't finish until late and I then had to try and chase up interviews with the performers so I was regularly getting home late then getting up early the next morning.î

James landed the job on the back of a work placement he did at the BBC whilst at university. He has since work occasionally for them and offered to cover the Comedy Festival as soon as the line up was announced.

Admiration

ìStand up has always interested me because I used to see a lot of comedians at the working men's clubs where my granddad played the organ. I'll always admire anyone who gets onto a stage and tries to make people laugh - it's incredibly difficult.î

James cites his favourite comedian of the festival as Mancunian Jason Manford who based his show around urban legends and his least favourite as Jimmy Carr saying ìhe's just nasty and his show wasn't really connected in any way.î His favourite interviewee was a Comedian from Liverpool called John Bishop.

ìHe told me all about an amateur lap dancing club's night in Seattle!î

James graduated with a BA (Hons) Journalism degree this year after taking the online route. He hopes his work for the BBC will stand him in good stead for his future career and that his work on the comedy festival proves ìI can be trusted to deal with large projects on my own.î

He added: ìIn the future, I've always wanted to be a feature writer for an upmarket men's magazine, so we'll see how that goes.î

More info
BA (Hons) Journalism
MA Online Journalism
BBC Manchester Comedy Festival coverage

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