Patrick Monahan named Britain's hardest working comedian

39-year-old says he is 'over the moon' at topping Ents24 ranking by visiting 104 different venues in the UK in 2015

Patrick Monahan said he would work on Christmas Day if there was a gig on (Rex)

Being a comedian seems a lot of fun – cracking jokes on TV panel shows and playing to sell-out crowds.

But behind the glamour are years of lonely late nights trailing up and down the country from one sparsely sold gig to another with just Radio 2 for company.

Comedian Patrick Monahan knows more than most about how much hard work being a comedian takes – he’s just been named Britain’s hardest working comic by the entertainment website Ents24.

Top 20 hardest working comedians

1. Patrick Monahan
2. Milton Jones 
3. Gary Delaney 
4. Stewart Francis 
5. Katherine Ryan 
6. Andy Parsons 
7. Jeremy Hardy 
8. James Acaster 
9. Alan Carr 
10. Joe Lycett 
11. Nish Kumar 
12. Nathan Caton 
13. Josh Widdicombe 
14. Hal Cruttenden 
15. Jimmy Carr 
16. Sara Pascoe 
17. Rob Beckett 
18. Lee Nelson 
19. Carl Donnelly 
20. Richard Herring

It ranked comedians according to the number of venues they performed at across the UK in 2015.

Monahan, who will have visited 104 different venues in the UK by the end of 2015, said he was “over the moon” to win the accolade, although he took issue with the idea that being a comedian was hard work – despite the hours spent travelling and writing material.

He told The Independent: “You’re getting paid for just talking. I literally have two days off a year – Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. And I only have them off because no one leaves the house [on those days]. If there was a gig... then I probably would do [it].”

The 39-year-old said he visited so many different locations because he loved meeting new people in new places. “A lot of it is to do with my background... my dad was a constant traveller [for work]. Growing up, that was sort of subconsciously instilled in us: you’ve got to get out there and graft. If I was going to give advice to people, I would say, to be a better comic is to write and get out there and to perform everywhere. Some comics are amazing but can only play their home town.”

Over the course of 2015, Monahan will have racked up 127 shows in the UK, but he has also performed in Egypt, Crete, Cyprus, Bahrain, Turkey and Ibiza. The majority of comics, he said, were hard-working. “People don’t realise to be stand-up, what you see on stage is the tip of the iceberg. We spend all day not just travelling, [but] writing…. 12 hours of writing might only give you six minutes. The only times that it can get a bit difficult in terms of that loneliness, there’s no structure to your life.”

The top 10 of Britain’s hardest working comedians also included Milton Jones, Katherine Ryan and Alan Carr.

Jeremy Hardy, who ranked in seventh place said he was “flattered” to be on the list, but highlighted some of the negative aspects of constantly being on the road.

“Only the travelling and being away from home, that’s the hard bit. And the thinking of new things to say,” he said.

“I’m probably unusual in that I travel on my own. I don’t have a support, I don’t have a tour manager. No matter how well the gig goes, by 11pm, I’m sitting in a provincial B&B wide awake, watching younger, richer and more successful people on television. But it’s what I do.”

Despite this, Hardy believed comedians had a duty to perform to audiences across the country. “I’ve been to every little bit of the country over the course of 30-odd years. I go everywhere and make a point of going everywhere. .. I feel like I should see my own country before I die.”