Lewis Costello: Blackburn's matchday man goes roving

Written by: Si Hawkins
Published: Saturday 29th March 2025

Is stand-up a transferable skill? Apparently so for Lewis Costello, who recently announced his new tour at his other weekend workplace, the ground Alan Shearer and Kenny Dalglish once also graced: Ewood Park, home of Blackburn Rovers Football Club.

On matchdays Costello is the club announcer, and he's now combining those careers with his new tour show Full Kit, a mirth-and-music peek behind the scenes of the beautiful game. But did Blackburn actually know he was announcing it there? We'll find out.

Football isn't this lifelong Rovers fan's only sporting claim to fame - he's also applied his talky talents to US pro wrestling and superstar boxing. It's back to football for his podcast though, Kicking Back, which Costello hosts with current player Millie Chandarana, who was at Blackburn but moved to Nottingham Forest last year. No hard feelings, presumably?

But let's kick off with the live show.

Tell us a bit about Full Kit - a revealing show for football fans?

Definitely! I'll talk about becoming my local team's announcer and what it's like working in football - but really, the name's because it's everything in my arsenal. As well as stand-up I'll have my guitar and keyboard... if my arthritis isn't playing up, I might even breakdance.

Is there much crossover between stand-up and match announcing? That's a big crowd if a gag doesn't work...

Timing is key in both. Knowing when to pause and build suspense is definitely a transferable skill. But the funniest moments in announcing tend to be when the mic's off! Before they moved me to announcing on the pitch, I announced from a booth next to the police. Once, I put a jalfrezi in the microwave at half-time, and it exploded. The head of police walked in, and it looked like I'd killed someone. I had to explain it was a curry. Things like this seem to follow me.

Do Rovers know you're announcing the tour at the ground, or are you just sneaking it in when off duty?

To be honest, I'm going down tomorrow to do it, so if a video doesn't come out with the tour announcement, it hasn't gone well. But they've always been supportive of me!

Will you be performing at other football-related venues? Probably not one in [local rivals] Burnley?

Actually, just before becoming the Rovers announcer, I gigged at The Royal Dyche in Burnley - I nearly paid for a drink with my season ticket. I felt like an undercover spy, but they were lovely. I'm looking at a second wave of tour dates, and a couple of football stadiums would be great. The function rooms, obviously - I'd lose a few quid booking the Stadium of Light, wouldn't I?

How did Kicking Back come about, and what's your favourite episode?

It started as a one-off looking behind the curtain at football, but we got on really well and decided to make it a regular thing. The idea keeps evolving - we love trying new formats.

Picking a favourite episode is tough, but probably our behind-the-scenes look at Wolfsburg. Their head of marketing, German Schulz, gave us a full tour - they even have an innovation department, which fascinated me! I learned a lot that day.

Is it trickier to do now that Millie is at Forest? She's been further afield though - San Marino, Italy, the UAE. Impressive CV...

It's trickier, but I'm so glad she got that move! Forest are flying this season. Losing our Blackburn studio forced us to rethink the podcast - we now blend football and travel content.

Over the past year, we've covered clubs like Venezia, Malmo, and Celtic, shining a light on how they run things. The episodes have gone down really well, and as well as releasing those monthly, we're bringing back weekly audio-only episodes. So in a way, the move helped us!

How did you get into the wrestling/boxing world? Presumably those are guys you don't joke about?

For my first wrestling commentary gig, I stood in a hotel lobby surrounded by giants, thinking, "Everyone here could batter me." Thankfully, they're some of the nicest people you'll meet! Probably because they know they can throw you across a room.

I grew up watching wrestling, so working in it is surreal. The promotion I commentate for, Prime Time Wrestling, is actually run by a stand-up comedian. That led to me presenting a Floyd Mayweather fight. It's a strange old life.

Could stand-up learn anything from pro wrestling? More dramatic walk-ons, maybe?

One thing that might surprise you is how similar comedians and wrestlers are. I've worked with a lot of athletes, but wrestlers have a personality that reminds me more of comedians.

If stand-up could learn one thing, it's that you don't have to be nice to be likeable. Some of the most entertaining wrestlers are just over-the-top bad guys. At the last Prime Time Wrestling show in Poland, a tag team called MxM Collection - fresh out of WWE - spent five minutes verbally abusing the entire crowd, and the country of Poland, before their match. The audience loved it.

Lewis Costello: Full Kit tours the UK from late April. lewiscostello.co.uk