CityLife

Who helped Toby Hadoke's big year

Toby Hadoke

AFTER spending many years best known as the compere of XSMalarkey comedy club and making occasional appearances in bit parts on the TV, 2008 has been comedian/actor Toby Hadoke’s year it seems.  

Or maybe that should be one week in said year...  

Let us explain, Hadoke has been a long term fan of Dr Who since he was spooked in childhood by the Daleks et al and so for Edinburgh 2006 he took his show Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf to the festival and received many rave reviews.   

The show didn’t just display his (scarily) encyclopaedic knowledge of Doctor Who but was also a moving exploration of his relationship with his own father and his subsequent one with his son.  

Following the run he recorded it as an audio book then toured it, performing his West End run during the aforementioned eventful week earlier this year.  

On the first day of that run, “I did a commentary for a Doctor Who DVD that Wednesday, sat and watched six black and white episodes of Doctor Who with the people that made them and did a commentary.  

Sexiest Doctor  

“Then I made my West End debut in front of some people in the audience who’d been in Doctor Who and afterwards got a phone call from a friend saying I noticed you got a Sony nomination, well done.  

“I thought wow, it doesn’t get much better than this, then five days after that got an MP3 through from David Tennant (the current and sexiest Doctor) with a recording he’d made to cameo in the show.”  

But the heady London lights haven’t dazzled him. Every Tuesday Hadoke’s still to be found at his beloved XSMalarkey, the award winning club that has been running in Fallowfield for many years.  

Hadoke started it up when, “I’d been doing comedy a bit and my brother in law played in a band in a pub called Scruffy Murphy’s (the original venue of the club) and the manager had said to him I want to do a comedy night and my brother in law said ‘my brother in law’s a comedian.’  

“So I had this meeting and the manager said I want a comedy night on a Tuesday. I didn’t really know what I was doing and I think that’s why it worked, because I haven’t got a business bone in my body,” he laughs.  

Not that the club’s about big business. It’s more a co-op, proud of its not-for-profit outlook – to its members the charge every Tuesday is just £2.  

But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t about quality. The first ever night started as it meant to go on with a top headliner.  

No bar stools  

“They gave me a budget to pay a headliner and I had to fill out the rest of the bill. The first bill was me for half an hour, a break then Tony Burgess.

“He kindly agreed to do the first one, he was my favourite Manchester comic and was the first comic I saw in Manchester. I expected it to last for eight weeks.”  

Eleven years later it’s bore witness to many an event. There was the move to Bar XS across the road, performances from the likes of Peter Kay, Dave Spikey and Jason Manford and has built a team of helpers including local agent Lee Martin and comic Neil Smith who help out along with other Malarkey faithfuls.  

There are always comics to be found in the club even when they’re not on the bill and there’s a regular audience that attend. It’s a bit like Cheers but with Manc accents and no bar stools.  

It’s nurtured talent along the way, always including an open spot in the bill and witnessed burgeoning careers.  

“Seymour Mace’s somebody that’s gone from being an open spot to paid spot to support slot to a headliner and he’s now doing hour long shows in Edinburgh. He’s even compered. He’s done every single slot at XS.  

“And I’m not saying that we are in any way responsible for his success but what is nice is that the club, as it has aged, has witnessed people develop.”  

Spiking its lemonade  

The club is celebrating its 11th birthday this month and like any self respecting 11 year old it’ll be having a sip of lager and lime and spiking its lemonade with whatever mum’s left out of the drinks cupboard.  

Hadoke may well turn Gordon Ramsey and knock together some egg butties like in previous years. Oh and they’ll be some top comedy too, though as is the tradition, Hadoke’s keeping schtum about who’s gracing the stage.  

“I never tell anyone who’s on. It’s your loss if you don’t come. All I say about the birthday is that last year we had Mark Steel, Jimmy Cricket and Toby Foster ,so come this year!”  

XSMalarkey is back after a refurb that sees the bar now named Remedy on Tuesday, September 16 and every Tuesday thereafter. The birthday is on September 30.