Comedian Jason Manford is setting up a website for well-run gigs, to help comedians get the right kind of bookings and, more importantly, to encourage comedy fans to enjoy live comedy and keep supporting live comedy. He has registered the name findalaugh.com and anyone interested can go there now and join a mailing list to keep up with developments.

Manford, who has also recently set up seven venues of his own, which can be found at www.manfordscomedyclub.com,  has posted a request on Facebook asking comics, agents and promoters to tell him about clubs so that his site will be able to "list every comedy night in the country, but only those that hit certain criteria will be included. If they fall below the standard (i.e. they don't pay, or they're a missold open spot night, or shite set-up etc) then they don't get the "corgi" registered and they don’t get included in the site! We can include comedy from Seinfeld visiting an Arena to the Hen and Chicken in Bristol, it's not size, it's quality."

His aim is to establish a kind of kite mark for comedy and make it something that people want to go to on a regular basis. Manford, who runs his clubs with his brother Colin, believes that too many people have been put off live stand-up by badly run clubs and as a result have decided that they might as well stay in and watch comedy for free on television. 

"I think if we work together on this, I can use my profile and the million or so Facebook and Twitter fans to start getting the message out there. 'Live stand up comedy is as good if not better than the stuff on the telly, and there’s a great gig up the road from you tonight, please come!'."

Jason Manford can be reached at [email protected]