Harry Hill, Paul Merton, Vic Reeves, Frank Skinner, Johnny Vegas and Jo Brand, with whom he had a two-year affair and whom he persuaded to become a comedian. He hosted the first-ever outing of the new circus group Ra-Ra Zoo, who performed comedy mime to a, for once, silenced audience. He also worked for a time as the manager of Jerry Sadowitz and was an occasional promoter and tour manager for his friend and neighbour Jools Holland. His most infamous venue was The Tunnel Club, which he opened in 1984 next to the southern exit from the Blackwall Tunnel in Greenwich, South East London. He would sometimes introduce inexperienced stand-ups to audiences with the nerve-jangling line: "This next act's probably a bit shit", but once their performance was finished, he would often comfort those he thought showed promise with backstage words of encouragement and urge them to try again. According to Stewart Lee, he would often insult comedians after they had finished their acts while also simultaneously praising them, as a way of protecting their dignity. Lee notes that after his first gig he did for him, Hardee said "That was Stewart Lee. Started off well, got worse, by the end he was shit". His advice to comics who were concerned that a joke might be offensive to an audience was: "If you think it’s funny, then fuck ’em." At his weekly Sunday Night at the Tunnel Palladium shows, sometimes even experienced and accomplished comedians failed to complete a whole set against the unforgiving crowd and razor-sharp heckling. When the club became established, it attracted groups of men apparently from the suburb of Eltham who Hardee referred to as 'Herberts'. They were usually drunk and attending the Tunnel club as it offered after hours drinks on a Sunday night, a rarity back then. They usually ended the evening by fighting, fortunately usually between themselves, leaving everybody else as spectators. It was at the Tunnel Club that comedian Jim Tavare once began his act with the unwise opener, "Hello, I'm a schizophrenic" – to be met with the lightning rejoinder from a heckler in that night's audience, "Well, you can both fuck off then!". Julian Clary together with Fanny the Wonder dog were surprising hits at such evenings. The Tunnel closed in 1988 and, in 1991, Hardee opened the Up The Creek comedy club in Creek Road, Greenwich. In an upstairs