A 20 year old comedian who set up his own production company has attracted funding and received a business award after managing a successful comedy night at Blackburn’s Thwaites Empire Theatre.
Junaid Musa, who runs nights at several other venues in Blackburn and Darwen, started off performing stand up comedy as a hobby but soon realised that he could organise events himself. In 2011, he took a chance, walked into the Empire Theatre and asked if he could run his own comedy night.
Junaid said: “In hindsight, they had a lot of faith in me as an 18 year old – but I must have talked the right talk that day. Since then, I’ve run ‘World of Comedy’ every two months and it’s been selling out.”
“Off the back of the night, others have shown support for me. Regenerate Pennine Lancashire helped me access funding, which has gone towards the running and promotion of the nights. I also won the Young Innovation and Enterprise category at the Community Foundation for Lancashire awards – it was the first time I’ve ever been made speechless”.
Junaid’s company, JM Productions, is also working alongside a teacher at St Wilfrids Academy in Blackburn on the delivery of a drama club, with an overall aim to host their end of year show in the Empire Theatre. He is also beginning to host non-comedy events, which have so far included a local Variety Show.
Junaid said: “My initial aim is to grow the business to a point where I’m organising two or three events per month and working with a couple more venues. It’s not about the money. One of my main philosophies is to create affordable events not just for profit, but for people to come to be educated, entertained or informed.”
Rona McFall, Enterprise and Employment Manager at Regenerate, said: “Junaid has a real drive to be successful and we get the feeling we will hear from him again as he grows his business. Regenerate helped him access funding through the Pennine Lancashire Youth Enterprise fund, which is one of several programmes we run to help people start and grow businesses.”
