‘It’s a dose of escapism’: A chat with Jonny Bongo

Tell us how you’re feeling right now ahead of the 10th birthday weekend?

I’m so proud our 10th birthday shows are incoming in Liverpool where this all began and it’s going to blow everyone’s heads off. I mean, hang on - ten years of Bongo’s Bingo?! It’s crazy for me and the team, from starting off here with a Fray Bentos pie as a prize to going around the world and back again, to being on this crazy adventure. 

It’s a proper pinch ourselves moment for everyone involved at Bongo’s Bingo that we are about to celebrate our tenth birthday. A decade ago we had no idea what would happen and genuinely it still feels surreal to think of where we are now. During this time we’ve given away over 5000 Henry Hoovers, who knows how many mobility scooters and crowned players with disco ball helmets on stage. We’ve travelled the world and brought the wonderful game of bingo to far-flung locations. We’ve had a hell of a lot of dance offs, dickhead calls and truck loads of environmentally friendly confetti, and we have shows across the UK. I’m really excited for it all and a little bit nervous, too!

 

What can we expect at the 10th birthday?

So for this we are going absolutely all out. These are going to be the most bonkers Bongo’s Bingo parties anyone has ever seen over one glorious weekend in Liverpool. We’ve got lots planned to celebrate ten years so we’ll be giving away a couple of cars, holidays, cash, special Henry Hoovers and loads more and capturing the magic of a whole decade. Fuck – we are ten years old!  

So we are going all out on the details and getting everyone involved. Reaching a decade feels genuinely surreal and I want to say huge thanks for everyone who supports us everywhere we are. We work so hard to create something special that everyone adores and these 10th birthday shows are for the fans. The history of Bongo’s Bingo and why people love it so much will be celebrated as we start a new decade and we have got some very special guests joining us too.

Who are the special guests at the 10th birthday?

We’ve got three simply amazing special guests joining us who all have played a part in our story, from the very origins of when we first started to across the years. They are all going to bring amazing energy and love to our double whammy of birthday shows. First up Simon Webbe and Lee Ryan from Blue return. They will perform many of their iconic hits for us, from One Love to All Rise. The guys have performed at Bongo’s Bingo shows across the UK and will bring their sensational star turn to the stage.  

Next up, N-Trance are famed for being behind quite possibly the ultimate Bongo’s Bingo anthem of all time – the spine-tinglingly good Set You Free which gets played each time by me. They will perform their anthem and play other hits to create the biggest Rave Rounds ever for our 10th birthday. Then two very special guests return – The Cheeky Girls. Gabriela and Monica were the first ever special guests at Bongo’s Bingo back in December 2015 and they are making a very welcome return to help us with the celebrations.

How did Bongo’s Bingo start?

The DNA of Bongo’s Bingo came off the back of a pub quiz that I ran every Monday in The Shipping Forecast on Slater Street which started in 2010. It was this mad quiz I hosted for five years with bonus rounds, crazy prizes, dance offs and daft questions, and a big focus on the audience getting involved too with the mayhem. Then five years in I fancied doing something a bit different. So the idea of bingo was sort of similar and in the same way a quiz can sometimes feel a bit stale, to me it’s always been about injecting new life into something and bingo seemed like something which had the same potential. 

So early 2015 was about taking something people know and love and turning it upside down. Bongo’s Bingo would not have happened without the quiz coming first and that inspired me and Joshua Burke to give it a go and we had with no idea how it would develop. We held on for dear life as it grew. Imagine how the quiz was every Monday and right now we’re doing 120+ shows per month, with 18 hosts and loads of dancers and a team of over 120 people and working with these venues all over the UK.

So we thought let’s breathe a new life into bingo and whilst bingo is what people recognise, what we do is totally different too. Starting ten years ago, when no-one knew what to expect and no-one else was doing what we do, it really blew their minds and the word of mouth in Liverpool went crazy. Then we had cities and venues coming to us, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow, London… all of a sudden we were doing shows in Australia, Dubai and Ibiza and everyone wanted Bongo’s in their town or city. Within three years we were all over the UK and haven’t looked back. We’re still proudly based in Liverpool. Our office is here and the majority of our staff are based here and there’s no place in the world Bongo’s Bingo could have started in other than Liverpool. 

What makes Bongo’s Bingo special?

Since day one we’ve been laser-focused on creating the best possible experience for everyone who comes to play bingo with us. Every show is about them. And that’s why it’s the people who come to play bingo who make it special, so me and all the team want to say a huge thank you to everyone who supports us. 

I think there are many reasons why everyone loves Bongo’s Bingo. It's very immersive, it's very interactive and it's also very inclusive as well, the fact that you've got all ages coming, from students to three generations of the same family all at the one table, people are coming with their mum and their and their nan or their friends, there’s date nights and work nights out. Everyone shares the experience together.

We invest a lot of time and money in crafting the experience into something everyone enjoys and is part of, it’s a dose of escapism where you can leave your worries at the door for a few hours and let loose big time. So it’s become this thing that appeals to so many people and everyone’s always welcome, everyone’s playing together, so sometimes I can be there and look at the crowd and it still blows my mind now. 

I feel Bongo’s has become a part of the UK’s bingo culture as the original and defining event people know and love. Plus bingo is something bloody amazing that everyone can play, it’s this wonderfully enduring game which is centuries old and simple to be involved with. Bingo is at the heart of it. So whether it’s a smaller venue or like the Exhibition Centre Liverpool, we could have 500 people or 3500 and the experience amps up the same and the core of the show is always bingo, plus all of the magic and mayhem around that.

Any mad moments which stand out?

There have been plenty of mad moments, like when Samuel L Jackson randomly popped into a Glasgow show in April 2023 and gave out glowsticks. Debuting in NYC was incredible and doing a run of shows there and something else crazy is we’ve not long launched our podcast which is great fun and out twice a week. 

We’ve had Lewis Capaldi and Tom Daley coming to play and some legends performing for us, like Craig David, Kelis, Natasha Beddingfield, Vengaboys, Heather Small, Nadine Coyle, B*Witched, S Club, 5ive, Atomic Kitten, East 17, Boyzlife and many more, to local legends Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnson calling bingo with us in Liverpool for their TV show.

A lot of it for me is just seeing so many people together having an amazing time and letting loose, all from different walks of life. That’s what inspires me and I still find it fascinating how much people love us and what we do, so I think that in itself is mad. That release people have with us is palpable and whoever you come with you usually make new friends along the way at a Bongo’s Bingo show. You’re sharing this crazy experience all focused around the very traditional game of bingo. 

What have the challenges been along the way?

We’ve had some challenges for sure. I think the pandemic was the biggest – the same for any event built around a lot of people in an enclosed space, we had to stop every show and pause our plans. It was really tough as a business with the uncertainty. But we still tried to innovate, even then; we had outdoor shows which worked really well given the awful circumstances and we also launched the live stream on Twitch which had millions of views and brought us into people’s homes and their phones. And off the back of that we now have our new podcast and are channelling the energy of what we do into something new, partly inspired by the live stream. But yes, the pandemic tested us to our limits and once we were able to do shows again the demand surged back, you could see how much everyone wanted to be together again and have fun. I guess there are a lot of copycats too who try to mimic what we do too; this used to frustrate me but now we just let them get on with it.

And the future for Bongo’s Bingo?

Well we’ve made it to a decade, so why not two? We’ve had our strongest ever start to the year which is a great way to start 2025. It’s been a truly crazy journey since day one and we’ve got loads more to achieve. We’re right across the UK, debuting in new locations like Llandudno, Grimsby and Cambridge and all selling out so we want to keep going. I think we’ll just need a wee rest after the birthday weekend! So I hope to see you there at the Exhibition Centre Liverpool this weekend – it’s going to be class.

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