St David’s Hall
Mark Watson’s latest tour has kicked off with two out of four gigs to date in Wales-although admittedly a little late last night ‘thanks to the rugby’. Watson suggests using ‘thanks to the rugby’ as a catch-all excuse when in Cardiff. And given that the main narrative of this show is about travel and the associated anxiety of getting there, the lateness of some of his audience ‘because of the rugby’ was actually fairly fitting.
Watson’s new show deals with his travel to Australia and nearly not being allowed into Australia due to a tiny rip in his passport and whole lot of bureaucracy. Considering he is, as he says, frequently confused with Rhod Gilbert and the Welshman’s famous routine about losing a suitcase during travel it seems right that Watson take a hold of the travel narrative and reclaim it properly as his own. And he does this via a sweeping story that takes in both thinking about his own career-and maybe one day not being mistaken for Rhod Gilbert or David Baddiel, to fatherhood and family life via a few anecdotes about life in comedy (he won’t tell you exactly how much Jimmy Carr’s watch is worth…well actually he will). It is, as Watson said in his interview with Buzz, a very personal show drawing on much of his recent life experience and reflecting on his own life and the state of the world.
Watson was as ever likable and honest in his comedy-which contains a healthy balance of real reflection on life and where things are and where they are going for himself and the wider world. Thinking about the changing digital world we live in, and how to explain the world he grew up in to his children, for example. It’s a nice balance of comedy and commentary that voices a lot of concerns the audience is likely to share.
The audience were also involved from the start, giving the show a natural feel-from Watson’s apologies about the late start, to employing a timekeeper in the front row he was engaged with the audience from the start. This also extended to a bit of mild twitter stalking to kill time before the show-this is the only instance he stresses you can say to a woman ‘You like your cakes don’t you’, and he also used this to do a bit of campaigning for a would be student union president. Watson is clearly relaxed with his audience even if much of his comedy draws on the neurosis he feels in life.
Mark Watson is one of the most likeable comedians around-his comedy draws on voicing a lot of what everyone thinks (and sometimes obsesses) about but rarely voice. His irritations and outrages aren’t as extreme as other comedians and actually this affable frustration that leans towards self-deprecation makes his work as endearing as it is funny.
words EMILY GARSIDE