Mark Watson - Flaws

In 2011 I went and saw Mark Watson live. You can read the review here if you want. I loved it. He was a break from the normal stand-up. Most will have a lesser-known stand up perform half an hour of material, before an interval and then the main event. The comedian then slips off, comes back on stage, and then disappears after receiving a few more laughs. Mark Watson does none of that, and it's brilliant. One could be mistaken for thinking he has no clue what is going on; but I think it's more a demonstration that he knows better than most comedians, what is happening.

On Sunday, I went and saw him again at The Gulbenkian, Canterbury, and it was very much a similar format to when I saw him on his 'Request Routes' tour. Not much has changed, apart from having slightly more facial hair, being spectacleless, and less Welsh.

'Flaws' has no definable beginning. Last time he began by speaking to the audience via typing on a laptop screen. This time he came on stage and began jogging on a treadmill, of which a microphone stand placed conveniently in front. This, as he put it, was his warm up. He chatted to the audience, and made general observations about the audience for nearly 10 minutes. He then walked off stage before immediately reappearing and commencing the show.

He is incredibly endearing, and it's hard to not fall in love with him, just a little bit. His body language is always relaxed, and does everything he can to break down the barrier between him and his audience, such as holding the microphone low. Another technique, and perhaps a more sinister one, is looking up members of the audience on Twitter. The amount he knew one member of the audience, such as televisual habits and pets, is a scary reminder of the times we live.

As always, his comedy comes from his real life. To reuse a sentence from my last review of Watson, 'He is very much the raconteur'. However, unlike last time, this was much more personal. In this tour, unsurprisingly, he talks about the flaws which have obviously, over the past year or so, made themselves apparent to him. He shows that there is a faint line between comedy and tragedy, as his main topics for discussion cover his reliance on drink ("If only there was a word like workaholic that describes drinking too much alcohol"), and hating, and losing confidence in, his own work. It then made me look at his 2011 tour in a different, darker, and unexpected light, as the veil was lifted.

But don't be thinking that this is a serious and dark show, because it is quite the opposite. He is refreshingly honest, but perhaps only showing the funny side of his problems. It is isn't until afterwards that you actually realise how frank he was. At the time, it is incredibly funny. Particularly when he opens up about his breaking point, which was at a Thomas the Tank Engine film premier with his toddler.

In a unique twist, he recreates the moment for the audience, for a quick moment of audience participation, props and music. You sit there in awe of what nightmare he has created in just a few moments, and it had the audience in fits of laughter. However, like always with a Canterbury audience, it's hard work for a comedian to get the audience to participate.

The show consists of a lot more than just chronicling his despair from the past year or so, as many of those themes are broken up by tangents about songs, his 'personal' relationship with Madonna, and irritation at Keep Calm merchandise. It is put together beautifully. And unlike a lot comedy shows, it has final message, which is quite enlightening and optimistic; "Being human is bloody hard" but, to paraphrase, we can find comfort in remembering that we're better than cats and worms. And then after checking the time with an audience member like he seems to always do, he did his usual self-promotional admin before leaving the stage.

I certainly hope I get the opportunity to see him next time he tours (not that he has even finished this tour yet), as I find real joy in seeing him live. He has become like a friend, and I probably know more about him than I do most of my friends. The one qualm with this show was that, despite still consisting of over 90 minutes of material, it didn't feel long enough. And if that's the only negative point I can think of, then it isn't bad going.

The last stand up show I went to see was at The O2, and coming back to this few-hundred seater, I appreciate it's intimacy a lot more. Comedy just isn't the same in those places and you can never beat a small, local theatre. And if you can see a brilliant comedian like Mark Watson at one, then you can't wish for anything better.

Henning Wehn: That German Comedian

Henning Wehn brought his latest stand-up comedy show, Henning Knows Bestest, to Canterbury's The Gulbenkian Theatre on Saturday, May 11th. I travelled from London to see him, and it was definitely worth the journey, and missing Doctor Who; after all, you can't iPlayer theatre.

Regardless, beforehand I had only really seen him on comedy panel shows, on Dave's One Night Stand and occasionally on Radio 4, so it was a slight gamble. However, it was one of the best comedy nights I have had. It started off with him being his own warm-up act. Unfortunately, the material he used in this section of the show seemed to be his go-to jokes he uses on TV; witty, satirical observations. For example, in the week following this show, he was on 10 O'Clock Live, providing a few jokes about Europe, all of which I had heard just days earlier.

Milton Jones - Warming Us Up

Ahead of his 2013 tour, Milton Jones ventured down into Canterbury on a cold, January night. He came came and warmed us all up with his one liners, testing which ones worked, and which did not. Turns out, they mostly all had the audience laughing hard.

Milton Jones' Grandfather (I think it's just Milton Jones dressed up however) came out first and warmed up for the warm up for Milton's warm up show. He came onto the stage in an usual manner, but it shows an increase in his profits as it was more adventurous than pushing a trolley on like like he did last year. It obviously contained lots of his usual top class one-liners.

Comedy by a Ragdoll on Strings

On Friday I received an invite to see Chris Addison perform his show 'The Time is now, Again' at The Gulbenkian, Canterbury, with my usual comedy-watching partner after he possessed an extra ticket for no obvious reason. Following the text just an hour before the show started, I had to cook and chew my dinner in half an hour, to then jump in the car to ensure I was there on time. I then watched Chris Addison with indigestion.

The following two hours were filled with comedy rants from a well-informed viewpoint by a tall, slightly camp, man who burns extra calories by continuously patrolling the stage. I like to think of him as a Ragdoll being operated from above with strings, from his occasional prancing about, elaborate hand movements and floppy curly hair. He was a joy to watch, not just listen to.

"...And The Kangaroo Wasn't Even There!"

Don't get that punch line? Well, then you've not seen Mark Watson on his new tour 'Request Routes'. Just for the sheer randomness and build-up to that punch line, I think it will stay with me for a long time to come. Am I going to ruin it for you? No; I'd never give it the justice that it deserves. Anyway, was he worth going to see? Positively, absolutely yes! I'm not sure when he actually started his routine. You could easily mistake him for a humorous, mumbling fool on stage, but he isn't. He's very clever.

He's not like stand-up comedians I've seen perform live before. He doesn't deliver joke after joke in the orderly fashion that Milton Jones does. His routine didn't seem contrived to go in a certain way like those of Ardal O'Hanlon, Sean Lock and Lee Mack and it wasn't a political lecture like that of Jeremy Hardy. Nor was it an over-used routine that he's stuck to for year after year like Paul Zerdin. Mark Watson was Mark Watson; handy because that's who we got tickets to see…

The warm-up act was possibly one of the funniest I've seen. It had me, and the entire audience, laughing, crying and participating. It was mostly improvised by the changing surroundings and the people that it saw, and picking on people who were absolutely ignorant to the whole thing until they sat down and saw what was happening. The warm-up act wasn't some young, budding comedian, yearning for a break into the comedy world. It involved Microsoft software on a laptop, a screen and a projector and remained silent in its 'geekyness'. Who was it? It was Mark Watson, warming up the audience for his sell-out show at Canterbury's Gulbenkian Theatre on Thursday, 7th June, 2010. While the audience entered, he sat on his laptop talking to the audience via Microsoft, a projector and a screen. He commented on people as they walked past the stage, finding their seats. The audience fell in love with him.

Mark Watson left the stage then entered back on, the audience cheered, whooped and whistled, and then Mark Watson chatted to us, in a very casual manner like we were all friends and he told us all his funny stories. He is very much the raconteur. He had stories of fatherhood, public transport, social awkwardness, politeness, and much more. The stories were gripping with regular laughter breaking them up. He interacted with audience by having breaks to chat about daily amounts of water intake and the like. He challenged the audience with a game and we were participates in the comedians strategy for dealing with late comers. It wasn't funny, it was fun.

The interval started after asking the audience for the time, and 15 minutes later he came back for another chat, before starting the latter half of his comedy routine about the same topics, mainly surrounding his social awkwardness in the real world when interacting with people. He even performed for us, LIVE, his lines for both the Magner's Pear Cider advert and the Innocent Smoothies advert (however, he didn't change into his white rabbit alias that we recognise him as…). The audience laughed a lot more, then he asked for the time one more time before slowing his routine down to do some self-promotional admin before leaving the stage.

His stand-up was one of the best I've seen, with me not getting bored and continually being gripped. When you walk out of a theatre with aching cheeks, hurting lungs and a sore throat, you know that you have had a great night of laughter. His routine was packed with laughter and was clever planned, and certainly, it was cleverly performed. I do have one criticism, mainly due to my gender, sexuality and social annoyance: I don't like that I saw his underwear every other minute. However, I'm sure they'll be a lot who would never complain, so yeah. If the worse thing I can say is that 'He showed his underwear too much', then Mark Watson is a fantastic comedian, with a brilliant routine that you should definitely see live. Even if only to understand how "…and the kangaroo wasn't even there!" is a punch line…

And if you think I've ruined the experience for you by doing a general overview of it and releasing the clever warm-up act to you, I haven't. I reckon it ends up different each night.

Milton Jones. You Know, Him With The Shirts On Mock The Week...

The Crazy-haired, obscure shirt-wearer, pun-machine,
that is Milton Jones!

I don't think Milton Jones really suits the surroundings of Mock The Week. The show is a bear pit where comedians race to get their joke heard, and it will sometimes involve a race to the microphone or shouting louder than someone else until they give up. However, he still seems to excel himself. He is much like a senile Grandad who sits in the corner of a room quietly, until you forget he's there. Then, all of a sudden, he says what he has just been thinking about amongst all of the shouting. Everyone stops and listens, and then everyone laughs harder than they have previously to any of the other comedian’s material. He is brilliant and fast becoming my favourite current comedian.

                                                         

Therefore, it won't come as a surprise when I say that I have now seen him perform live for the second time, in a space of under 18 months. I reviewed his first show in 'My Comedy Nights Reviewed' blog at the end of 2009, and I very much enjoyed it. Well, I obviously did otherwise I wouldn't put myself through torture of going to watch him again for a few hours...

The show at Canterbury's Gulbenkian Theatre was actually scheduled for January, but due to 'TV commitments', it got postponed by a month. Also, this date was one of two, with the first one being booked very fast. This I think is a sign of how his popularity has increased since our last meeting. However, he is still different from all other comedians I have seen live. Last time I saw him walking about outside after the show. This time, I saw him wondering around before the show. I have only seen five other comedians live, but none of them have walked through the cafe part of the theatre, to buy a sandwich. Obviously, being the English people I, my friend and everyone else in 'holding pen' are, I don't believe anyone actually acknowledged him.

Anyway, once released from the holding pen into the theatre, and after a few Queen songs played and the lights turned off, the warm-up act came out. This was Milton Jones's Grandfather; or for the more cynical amongst us, Milton Jones wearing a cap, jacket and a gurn, whilst pushing a check shopping trolley, in the guise of the aforementioned Grandfather. Yes, he was his own warm-up act.

Or rather, he was a warm-up act for his warm-up act. After Milton's 'Grandfather' left the stage, a young chap called James 'Giftshop' Acaster took to the stage. In all honesty, I am always cynical about young comedians, so I was feeling anxious about this blonde haired man who has barely stopped using Freederm. He was actually, really funny and I thought him a great addition to the night. A great raconteur who will make every audience member squirm at the amount of detail he squeezes from every story. He also had great audience interaction in which he practically sodomised another young man live on stage. Whether that was a one off or if it always happens, I don't know, but that was a moment which had the entire room laughing. If it wasn't part of his routine, it probably is now. Incidentally, you won't get the 'Giftshop' part of his name unless you see him live.

He left the stage leaving everyone still slightly giggling and the interval happened.

Then the interval ceased, people returned to their seats and on stage came Milton Jones, sporting a blue addition to his collection of fabulous shirts.

His act was obviously brilliant. It was fast paced puns continuously, with him using props such as an overhead projector, a small book and slides to help him seamlessly flit from pun to another. He was only ever slowed down by hecklers, but then when has that never been the case with top comedians? He, and indeed other members of the audience, dealt with the heckler, who was soon put back in his place. One may enquire why people insist on shouting out, when they don't intend to deal with the follow up.

If you have flicked back to my old blog, you would notice that Milton has done the same thing in his last live show, such as dressing as an old man, but it was completely different. In fact, I think Milton was fantastic and I actually never wanted him to stop telling jokes. I would have been happy to sit there for many more hours. This whole evening out only took up two hours of life, and it felt like much longer. I suppose being told a vast volume of jokes in a short amount of time seems to affect how time seems to pass.

If you can go and see him, I strongly recommend it. If you like jokes, laughter, sodomy, old people impersonations, colourful shirts and props, then Milton Jones: Lion Whisper is the comedy show for you.

P.S. I have no real idea why he named it 'Lion Whisper', apart from the fact it's a reference to one of his jokes, which you'll miss if you cough.

My Comedy Nights Reviewed 2010

Just like last year, I have spent the past few months watching comedy shows and laughing until I forget my problems, instead of concentrating on my A-levels. Every time I have gone to the local, small theatre in Canterbury called 'The Gulbenkian'; a lovely, small place. Where ever you sit, you still feel as if you're too close to guy on stage. I think it is probably the meaning of an 'intimate gig'. This year, I only went on three occasions; Paul Zerdin, Ardal O'Hanlon and Jeremy Hardy.

Firstly, I went to see Paul Zerdin on his Spongefest tour in mid-September with a friend. It is very interesting to think that he is the most popular, active Ventriloquist in the UK currently, and yet, a lot of people don't recognise his name. Every time I told someone that I was going to see him - they would just look at me blankly. I would then go on to explain that he is 'the one who has the baby'. What followed was people going 'Oh yeah, him', but I'm not sure whether that was to just shut me up or not.

Anyway, he had a female magician, Mandy Muden as his warm-up act, and she was brilliant. One reviewer called her 'A sexy Tommy Cooper but without a fez', which is a shame because I think she'd have looked lovely with a fez. Anyway, the reason for the comparison is that she was very good at comedy and pretending to be rubbish at magic. We, as seems to be the norm when I go to see comedy, were sat near a heckler. He was soon put into his place by her and was no longer the 'cocky bastard' everyone thought of him to be.

Paul Zerdin then came on, after being introduced by 'The Voice Of The Balls' (National Lottery) and Nigel Havers (that posh one who left 'I'm A Celebrity...') through recorded sound bites. Impressive start. If I were to be brutally honest, I was slightly disappointed by his lack of new material. However, it didn't matter and he was amazing. He has three puppets. His most popular one seems to be Sam. He also had Sam's Grandfather called Albert and a baby called... Well, Baby. The reason why it was brilliant seeing him live was because of the fact it was an 18+ event. It is one thing to see a ventriloquist, but to see it all X-rated with swearing is truly amazing. One review of him which I read said he were 'A ventriloquist for the South Park generation', which he so definitely is! Seeing an old man puppet shouting "She's gagging for it" is certainly very funny.

Forgetting the puppets; Paul Zerdin is so very talented. He has the ability to use his voice to devastating effects, such as being able to echo the characters voice without his lips moving the slightest millimetre. He also has created great real life scenarios in which he could use his skills; for example to freak people out in a non-speaking elevator, walking past pregnant ladies and while watching Lobsters boil. If you have the chance to see Paul Zerdin and all his sponge friends, I strongly suggest you grab the chance with both your hands. Just a tip though - if you're ugly, don't sit on the front row - he will pick on you, throughout, constantly. I'm just saying...

The second show I saw was just a week later; Ardal O'Hanlon. This is a man who I have admired and watched on TV for many years, since I was young. In fact, it is easy to say that he is one of the four people who probably created the person I am today. Ronan Atkinson, John Cleese, Richard Wilson and Ardal O'Hanlon are those four men. Imagine my excitement at seeing that he would be coming to a theatre near me soon. I had to go and see him. With another friend, I did.

I have his last stand up tour on DVD. I love it. It is one of my favourite stand-up shows I have on DVD. I will just say this; it is a bloody good job that I do love it, because about 60% of the material he does on his latest tour, is material he done on his previous tour. It doesn't change the fact that I loved it and laughed the entire way through. He did change some of the punch lines, so it adds a bit of variety. Mind you, it is a bit like going to see your favourite bands really. You go to see them to hear them perform your favourite songs live, so why should it be any different comedy? I went to see him live, and he done some of my favourite jokes and also some new stuff, which was equally as funny.

The Irishman was very popular with the folk of Canterbury and I in fact saw numerous people I knew, including my favourite primary school and my family doctor. O’Hanlon had the audience eating out of his hands, metaphorically of course. It would be a completely different show if weren't metaphorically. Anyway, at every joke he told, people were howling (or in the case of my primary school teacher, cackling) with laughter.

Whether I had heard them or not, his jokes were fantastic. He is completely different to the likes of Michael McIntyre and more an Irish version of Lee Evans, but less sweaty. His humour is some of the most observant one can hear and is thoroughly enjoyable. If you haven't heard any of his stand up before, then great, fantastic. Go and see him and you will laugh until your lungs hurt. If you have seen his material, and really liked it, then still go and see it, but you don't need someone like me patronising you and telling you what you already know. The man is a genius, even if he may not sound or look it.

Exactly two months later, on the final day of November, I went to see Jeremy Hardy with the same friend. This was slightly new territory for me. Previously I've only really seen comedians that I have watched or listened too and really enjoyed. I've heard him a little bit on Radio 4 and seen him on occasion on Qi. I liked what I'd seen, so I was looking forward to it. Me and my friend did seem to drastically bring down the average age of the audience however. I could easily say I was the youngest person in the audience, being just a mere 18.5 years old.

30th of November was the first day of the 'treacherous' snow in Kent, so it started half hour late due to him being a few hours late. This had put him in a bad mood. His comedy was more just satire. It was as if I had gone to University to do a degree in ranting; two, hour stints of him just standing on stage, lecturing us about the new ConDem Government, social media and lots more. He started off in an unplanned rant about the weather and the state of travel.

Just in case you do go and see him after he's had a miserable journey to your town, be warned, he is asthmatic. Never would I have thought that I would go to a comedy show to see a comedian need to use their asthma pump. Mind you, I never thought I would see a comedian ask the audience for a tissue, but he done that too. It is for those reasons as well as the intimate surroundings and relaxed attitude of the audience that I think this wasn't a stand up show. This was most definitely a man lecturing a group of a few hundred people about his views upon current politics.

Was Jeremy Hardy worth risking my life for to driving home at 11pm in the thick, icy snow on untreated roads? Yeah, I really enjoyed it. He was different to the other comedians purely because it seemed more conversational, albeit coming only from one side. Others do this whole routine that they have done time and time again. I'm sure that is what Jeremy done too, but it is less obvious. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you were putting a gun to my head and forcing me to pick one of the comedians I saw as a favourite, I would have to be shot; right in between the eyes. I couldn't pick. They are all completely different and unique in their different ways: Paul Zerdin with his puppets making rude innuendos, Ardal O'Hanlon with observational humour and one of my childhood heroes, and Jeremy Hardy with satirical lecturing. All were brilliant. However, made to choose between all the comedians I've seen in my life, I would still say Lee Mack, who I saw last year and reviewed in last year’s 'My Comedy Nights Reviewed' blog.

I have no idea what next year has install for me comedy wise, but so far, I know I am seeing Milton Jones again in January, so expect another blog reviewing that experience...