Bar manager Joe Bunn said he was “very excited” when he learnt his pub, The Selden Arms, would receive a £100 tab from Joe Lycett.
The promotion gave 30 pubs across the UK a £100 bar tab to mark the final episode of Channel 4’s “Live from The Lycett Arms”, a comedy series hosted by the comedian and Celebrity Traitors star.
The traitors star pledged to put “a little bit of money” behind the bars of selected pubs across the country.
The show was filmed in a real pub created by Mr Lycett, where celebrity guests and members of the public joined him for live Friday-night interviews, comedy, games and pub chat.
The pub opens for just one hour each week while the programme is on air.
The Selden Arms (Image: Google Street View)
Mr Bunn said regulars nominated The Selden Arms of Lyndhurst Road, Worthing, for the promotion, but staff did not learn it had been chosen until the show revealed it.
He said: “It was a mild panic as we didn’t know how the bar tab would work.”
Mr Bunn, who has been working at the pub for four years, said the only condition was that the event took place on Friday 16, so he announced at 6pm that night that drinks were on Joe Lycett.
He said: “The tab ran out in 6 minutes.”
The 37-year-old said he had followed Lycett’s work since the Chortle Student Comedy Award in 2009.
Mr Bunn said: “He is very good.”
Mr Bunn added that The Selden Arms has been in Worthing for “years” and he has managed it since it re-opened under the same company as the Hove pub, The Hole In The Wall.
Joe Lycett is taking on the Celebrity Traitors (Image: Matt Crockett/Channel 4/PA Wire)
He said: “It felt like some kind of weird recognition.
“There is definitely a good audience for pubs rather than bars in Sussex.”
Along side the Selden Arms, two other Sussex pubs were chosen to take part in the event.
The Old Bike Stone in Worthing and The Preston Park Tavern in Brighton were also nominated, with the latter matching Lycett’s £100, totalling their free drink tab at £200.
On social media, The Preston Park Tavern team thanked fellow comic Maisie Adams for nominating them.