An Interview with Comedian Joe Kent-Walters

Fresh off the back of delighting audiences and judges at the BBC New Comedy Award final with his most notable comic creation, Joe Kent-Walters ‘is Frankie Monroe LIVE!!!’ Joe is making his highly anticipated debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year.

Frankie Monroe is the owner and MC of The Misty Moon – a working men’s club in Rotherham that is also a portal to hell. The club is under threat, dark forces and dirty deeds linger in the shadows and it’s up to Frankie to stop his beloved working men’s club from falling into oblivion. Now Frankie’s throwing everything he has at the wall; big numbers, special guests and mucky bitter to put on the greatest show and save his club.

Joe is the winner of the BBC New Comedy Award 2023 and he later went on to win the top prize of Best Show at the Leicester Comedy Festival 2024 with this debut hour, ‘Frankie Monroe: LIVE!!!’. He won the Chortle Student Comedy Award 2021 which saw him play the main comedy stage at Latitude festival and tour Australia, performing at the Sydney Comedy Store. He is also a part of the comedy double act, The Lovely Boys, who have received critical acclaim and achieved cult status with their 2022 debut show.

Graham Clark chatted to Joe about his career to date…

What made you want to be a comedian?
I fell into it really as at school I liked drama and when I was at university I started doing comedy which led me to entering the BBC Comedy Awards which opened up a lot of doors; I got an agent which led to more gigs and developing a fan base.

Prior to becoming a comedian did you have any bad jobs?
Quite a few which are bizarre; I served ice creams at Yorkshire Sculpture Park though the most strange one was when I worked at the York maze, I had to dress up as the corn on the cob for the pig race where I was chased by pigs! You couldn’t really make it up!

You are from Huddersfield, are there any more famous comedians from the town?
There is – Daniel Kitson is from Denby Dale. His style of comedy might seem a bit obscure but he is a big name in comedy and has appeared in Phoenix Nights playing a character called Spencer.

Where did you get the idea of Frankie Monroe?
I used to go to a lot of Working Men’s Clubs- there are some real characters there and they provided the inspiration for the character.

Do you get many hecklers at your gigs?
I do get quite a few – when I am in character it is a lot easier to deal with them, I usually tell them where to go, in a nice way of course.

What do you miss about Yorkshire when you go on tour?
I miss the people most of all who are in the main, naturally very funny with the things they say. My girlfriend lives over in Manchester and I spend a lot of time over there, the people still have that Northern sense of humour but not like they do in Yorkshire.

What gigs have you coming up?
The big one for me is the Edinburgh Festival run, I am really looking forward to that very much. Before that I play a gig in Ripon on 2nd July at the Ripon Arts Club which is another gig I am very excited about.

Joe Kent-Walters is Frankie Monroe LIVE!!!
Venue: Monkey Barrell 2
Date & Time: 29th July – 25th August (excluding 14th August), 23:25
Duration: 60 mins
Twitter: @joekentwalters
Instagram: @joe_is_frankiemonroe