Mark Watson- Flaws
Last night, I headed off to Tunbridge Wells to see Mark Watson at the Trinity Theatre, a 350 seater in a converted church. It's also an altogether more civilised place to watch a comedy show on a Friday night even if the locals enjoy playing up to their local stereotypes a bit, bristling at the notion of people attending from Maidstone or Gillingham.
Such tidbits were gleaned from an enjoyable section of audience banter with the affable Watson, seamlessly integrating threads involving a solitary American in the crowd and an off kilter laugher in the first few rows into the remainder of the show. The American revealed she had been to see Stewart Lee and not understood his act. Watson elected to keep the peace over Lee's public condemnation of his appearance in a cider advert, though not without a jab at his status as "the moral arbiter of British comedy". As a comedy nerd, I do love this sort of thing.
At the show's conclusion, Watson delivers an absolutely top drawer joke regarding the expression "always leave them wanting more". He certainly succeeded in my particular case, despite a little over 90 minutes of top quality stand up. On that level, Watson delivered but perhaps at the expense of a more satisfying narrative. It would have been interesting to see the show in its hour long Edinburgh incarnation.
Having said that, we may well have been deprived Watson's endearingly low key entrance on a treadmill, providing a fun preamble before the start of the show proper. Or his joyous riffing on the discovery of a 14 year old in the audience, before teasing the mature demographic that largely constituted the Tunbridge Wells crowd. There's something particularly British about Watson's style of stand up, with awkward encounters in public very much his currency. His material on family life is also a delight, noting how his son's request to "Be funny Daddy" seems increasingly more sinister.
The show too, takes a darker turn in the second half as he discusses a troubling dependency on alcohol to treat his anxiety issues before a gig. Even this however, is treated with a degree of levity. Even in his periods of vice, the most significant consequence of his behaviour was increased donations to charitable causes.
Perhaps inevitably for a show that has been touring for quite some time, some of the reference points seem a little dated, in particular a deconstruction of Carlie Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe". A recreation of his mental breakdown suffered at the Thomas The Tank Engine premiere is amusing (and hearing that theme tune on a loop is terrifying) but takes too long to set up, an issue exacerbated by the retience of the audience to participate.
But in a show ultimately about flaws, these are small beer. It's a pleasure to spend a Friday night in the company of this naturally entertaining Bristolian.
Such tidbits were gleaned from an enjoyable section of audience banter with the affable Watson, seamlessly integrating threads involving a solitary American in the crowd and an off kilter laugher in the first few rows into the remainder of the show. The American revealed she had been to see Stewart Lee and not understood his act. Watson elected to keep the peace over Lee's public condemnation of his appearance in a cider advert, though not without a jab at his status as "the moral arbiter of British comedy". As a comedy nerd, I do love this sort of thing.
At the show's conclusion, Watson delivers an absolutely top drawer joke regarding the expression "always leave them wanting more". He certainly succeeded in my particular case, despite a little over 90 minutes of top quality stand up. On that level, Watson delivered but perhaps at the expense of a more satisfying narrative. It would have been interesting to see the show in its hour long Edinburgh incarnation.
Having said that, we may well have been deprived Watson's endearingly low key entrance on a treadmill, providing a fun preamble before the start of the show proper. Or his joyous riffing on the discovery of a 14 year old in the audience, before teasing the mature demographic that largely constituted the Tunbridge Wells crowd. There's something particularly British about Watson's style of stand up, with awkward encounters in public very much his currency. His material on family life is also a delight, noting how his son's request to "Be funny Daddy" seems increasingly more sinister.
The show too, takes a darker turn in the second half as he discusses a troubling dependency on alcohol to treat his anxiety issues before a gig. Even this however, is treated with a degree of levity. Even in his periods of vice, the most significant consequence of his behaviour was increased donations to charitable causes.
Perhaps inevitably for a show that has been touring for quite some time, some of the reference points seem a little dated, in particular a deconstruction of Carlie Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe". A recreation of his mental breakdown suffered at the Thomas The Tank Engine premiere is amusing (and hearing that theme tune on a loop is terrifying) but takes too long to set up, an issue exacerbated by the retience of the audience to participate.
But in a show ultimately about flaws, these are small beer. It's a pleasure to spend a Friday night in the company of this naturally entertaining Bristolian.
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