It almost closed in its first year. But now, 20 years on, the owner of Birmingham鈥檚 first comedy club is laughing all the way to the bank.
Mark Tughan took a risk when he opened The Glee Club back in 1994 and it struggled initially.
But now he owns four comedy clubs across the country and a business with a turnover of 拢3 million.
He even won a David and Goliath legal battle to protect his company鈥檚 name from media giants 20th Century Fox and their TV show Glee.
Mark鈥檚 success is hard won, which is why he is so scathing of new venues trying to muscle in on the burgeoning comedy scene.
He thinks little of pubs and clubs who decide to 鈥渟tick a bit of comedy on鈥 without thinking it through.
In May, comic Jason Manford launched Manford鈥檚 Comedy Club in Players Bar on Broad Street, while gentleman鈥檚 club The Rocket, in what was Ronnie Scott鈥檚, launches its first night at The Rocket Comedy Club on September 19.
鈥淚 call them the pop-up banner brigade,鈥 says Mark, 46.
鈥淭hey put up a banner, book a few comedians, stick two speakers in front of a wooden stage and suddenly they鈥檙e a comedy club. But that鈥檚 not enough!
鈥淔or them it鈥檚 all about increasing drink sales, not about the laughter and customer experience.
鈥淔or example, I employ someone just to make sure the sound and lighting is right. Anything else is cutting corners.
鈥淚鈥檓 responsible for everything in my club, from the state of the toilets to the quality of the food and the entertainment.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 not the case in other venues.鈥
Mark opened the doors of The Glee Club on September 10, 1994.
Born and raised in County Down, Northern Ireland, Mark took a year out at 18 to work at various jobs in London.
鈥淚 was introduced to the original Comedy Store in 1986,鈥 he remembers.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 when Ben Elton was compering in his sparkly suit and Harry Enfield was headlining as Stavros.
鈥淵ou used to queue for a couple of hours to get in 鈥 there was no internet and advance booking then, you just joined a queue.
鈥淪omething clicked in my psyche and I was absolutely hooked. I could see something was changing and I wanted to be part of it.
鈥淚 went to Nottingham University and then into banking.
鈥淚 really started Glee to escape the City during the last recession.
鈥淚 could see the way things were going. When I joined a merchant bank as a graduate trainee, there were 35 of us. There were four when I left.
鈥淚 had had a rotten few years in the City, and one Monday morning, after not sleeping a wink, I thought 鈥業 can鈥檛 do this any more鈥. So I resigned.
鈥淚鈥檝e always wanted to open a comedy club, though I thought I would probably go back to the world of high finance after a couple of years.
鈥淚 really didn鈥檛 expect to still be here, 20 years on!
鈥淚t was a good time to do something fairly nuts as I was young, with no family or commitments.
鈥淚 was out one night and got chatting to a property surveyor at the bar, I had a rush of blood to the head and said 鈥楧o any sites exist outside London for a comedy club?鈥.
鈥淚 wanted somewhere that was cheap to rent, with a room the right size and shape with low ceilings and no pillars.
鈥淗e rang me a couple of days later saying he had found some space in the Arcadian in Birmingham.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know the city but the 海角视频鈥檚 second city seemed a good place to set up.
鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 the first to try comedy in Birmingham but we were the first purpose-built comedy club rather than a room above a pub.
鈥淚t was tough for the first year and after nine months I really thought we might have to close.
鈥淲e had pretty tiny audiences. Comics were used to playing to 20 people in a pub, but that wasn鈥檛 commercial for us.
鈥淭here was a bit of a panic. I had to go back to my original backers and tell them the cupboard was bare and we needed more money.
鈥淚 had started the business with 拢100,000, borrowed from friends and family and two angels. But they got back five times what they invested.
鈥淚n the second year we started to fill up. We improved our marketing and moved the bar further from the stage and shut it when the acts were on.
鈥淚 had a fierce debate about that with my manager, but he was right. It stops chit-chat and noise from the bar and it didn鈥檛 harm drink sales 鈥 people just get their drinks in first.
鈥淲e also put the prices up because we were selling ourselves too cheap. I still think of the Glee as an affordable treat, though.鈥
The Glee has been a success not just in financial terms, but in helping to launch the careers of top comedians.
鈥淧eople come to see stars before they become famous, and they then remember us. We are the venue of choice for acts to warm up their show before a tour. We get people like John Bishop, Lee Evans and Michael McIntyre doing last-minute secret gigs.
鈥淲e once had an Edinburgh preview show that didn鈥檛 sell out that had John Bishop and Kevin Bridges as unknowns.
鈥淥ne Christmas show had John Bishop and Michael McIntyre on the same night.
鈥淛ack Dee, Peter Kay, Lee Mack and Ross Noble appeared at the Glee when they were starting out.
鈥淭hey remember us. Sarah Millican came back to do a Rough Works night for new material and we paid her in scones.
鈥淩oss Noble asked to compere our 20th anniversary show next week.
鈥淢ind you, it doesn鈥檛 always go well. My worst moment was at the VIP opening of the Cardiff Glee Club in 2001, when headliner Mark Lamarr took against a bit of good-natured heckling, put the microphone down and walked off stage.
鈥淚t was the longest 10 minutes of my life.
鈥淎 lot of comedians say the Glee is a good room because we make it hard for them to die. If they die, it鈥檚 their fault.
鈥淭he theatre lay-out is important 鈥 customers should be facing the stage.
鈥淚t helps if people are squished a bit together, rather than with their backs turns to the rest of the audience. That communal laughter experience really helps.
鈥淚 like the size of the room. I will never go to see someone in an arena as I think it rarely works. The acts are too far away, you might as well be watching them on TV.
鈥淪nobs is the only other night spot that鈥檚 been going longer than us in the city centre.
鈥淚 describe Glee as nightclubbing for grown-ups. When you get to my age you鈥檙e beyond clubbing, you want a night out but you want to sit down and be heard.
鈥淚 have concentrated increasingly on the quality of the food at the Glee 鈥 I think we鈥檙e streaks ahead because of our menu, which surprises people.鈥
The Glee鈥檚 first major competition came in 2003, when Jongleurs comedy club opened in Broad Street.
鈥淢y instinct is to fight and raise my game, so when I heard Jongleurs was coming, I shut the club for a few months for a major refurbishment.
鈥淲e were outgrowing our space so we doubled in size, opening up the downstairs bar and studio so we could have two shows on a Saturday night.
鈥淭he main room has capacity for 400 or 600 standing. We have got more into putting on music acts in recent years.鈥
Mark opened his Cardiff Glee Club in 2001 and clubs in Nottingham and Oxford in 2010.
It was during the latter expansion that he really noticed the effect of the TV show Glee, about a singing club at an American school.
鈥淚 felt the launch of both these clubs was compromised, if not entirely neutered, by this global TV phenomenon,鈥 sighs Mark.
鈥淲e were bombarded with people who assumed we were the TV show.
鈥淲e were well established in Birmingham so it wasn鈥檛 as pronounced here, but when you鈥檙e trying to launch something new and call it Glee, everyone thought we were something to do with the TV show.
鈥淚 felt I had to fight them, as I had trademarked the name back in 1999. It took a very long time and has cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees, but I hope to get at least some of that back now a judge has found in my favour.
鈥淔ox are threatening to appeal, though. I was awarded an injunction telling them to change the name of the series, but that has stayed pending an appeal. I will get paid eventually, if I have to get a judge to drag it from the cold dead hands of 20th Century Fox!鈥
Mark spent 14 years living in Moseley but for the last six he has been in Barnt Green, raising two children 鈥 four-year-old Anna and Thomas, three 鈥 with his wife, solicitor Samantha.
They met at the Glee when she came to learn Ceroc dancing, a class Mark used to put on on Monday nights.
He admits he works fewer hours now and has learned to delegate more.
鈥淚 have an accountant now. I used to do all the books myself, writing them up in pencil.
鈥淚 even designed our website and ticketing system myself with a schoolfriend. It鈥檚 all ours, we don鈥檛 use any outside ticketing agents.
鈥淓verything is in-house, nothing is out-sourced.
鈥淎lmost everyone I employ is on a profit-related pay system, so if we do well, they get a bonus.
鈥淚鈥檓 not quite the full John Lewis but it鈥檚 a good way of involving staff.鈥
Mark has owned 100 per cent of the business since 2000, despite offers from private equity to invest.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to be answerable to outsiders, and they鈥檇 want to expand to 50 clubs, which is never going to happen. I may open one or two more clubs, but comedy clubs can never be chains. They鈥檙e not like Pizza Expresses, local conditions really count.
鈥淚 want to keep the standards high.鈥
* The Glee Club is holding a comedy night on September 10 in aid of Macmillan Cancer Care, hosted by Ross Noble. Four nights of shows follow featuring Doc Brown, Josh Widdicombe, Romesh Ranganathan and Milton Jones. For tickets, ring 0871 472 0400 or go to
