This Is Modern Art

Edinburgh 2008

More Mick Sergeant videos

Nominated for best sketch, variety or character act in the 2008 Chortle awards. City Life North-West Comedian Of The Year finalist, 2008

Manchester Comedy Festival: The WART Show
Live Review
Manchester Lass O’Gowrie

The anarchic, chaotic spirit of early alternative comedy lives on in Lee Fenwick and Peter Slater’s WART show. Like the acts in those formative early-Eighties years, the results are as often terrible as they are hilarious, but it’s the wildly unpredictable nature of this shambolically put-together night that is its strength.

An acronym for We Accept Raw Talent, the shabby evening offers a smorgasbord of experimental character comedy, with guest contributions from other circuit comics of the north-west, including Keith Carter and Dominic Woodward. A Halloween special, tonight’s offerings are loosely based on horror movies – ‘loose’ being an adjective you can apply to pretty much everything on this bill.

One moment you might be witnessing the Darth Maul Orchestra – a man in a Star Wars mask bashing away at a non-working Stylophone – the next you can be watching a man throwing Shreddies into a makeshift vortex.

Fenwick made an appearance as his ex-shipyard worker Mick Sergeant, now a stand-up after passing a comedy course. Often a creation that’s riddled with pathos, he was in more workmanlike mode tonight, introducing the rogues’ gallery in the first half.

Slater, meanwhile, was at his best with Sir Arthur Conan The Barbarian, a drunken old actor whose anecdotes are secondary to his OCD-like behaviour, making a fine display of subtle exaggeration.

Stand-up Susan Vale made a couple of appearances, first as boot-wearing feminist poet Poppy Cherry, a parody of the sort of act you don’t see much of any more, while she evoked more nostalgia with her idea of a Fall tribute band, whose uncanny accuracy was somewhat lost on the small audience who’d largely never heard of Mark E Smith and his rough-and-ready post-punk outfit. Their loss.

The haphazard night also featured filmed inserts such as the lovingly-made parody Zombie Shit House; Ward Kennedy, a well-realised moviegoer with a nerdy obsession with continuity errors; and Christian hip-hop duo C-Rap, who couldn’t really do much better than the weak joke in their title. And the ‘what happened next’ movie quiz struggled, despite unearthing some genuinely weird horror footage.

You couldn’t accuse the WART show of being short on ideas, even if some of those ideas will probably – and quite rightly – never see the light of day again. The evening’s baffling and messy, but then that’s the point. There are some uncut gems in there, if you don’t mind scrabbling around in the mess to get to them.

Skip to page: 1 | 2

I saw mick sergeant at a tiny gig in Skipton 4 or 5 years ago. Empty room but I found his act fantastic. I enjoyed his YouTube uploads and can't wait for another show near me.

chris, January 2012

In contrast with some of those here, I perk up when I see Mick Sergeant on the line-up. As mentioned, the audience reaction might be enhanced by knowing that this is a character act - not a real bloke talking about his sh1t life. Odd but true, IMNSHO.

Ben, October 2011

Seen Mick live twice now, and enjoyed his shows each time. I think he's talented and funny but lacks confidence at times. But thats fair enough seen as people don't always expect a character comic at a circuit gig. Mick isn't a jokes comic; he's more of a theatrical comedy performer. His shows would work better in a theatre environment. Either way I do believe a bigger audience will catch on eventually.

Alan, October 2010

On the three occasions that I have seen him, I found him more and more not funny, Gave him a third time lucky, but I'll never go and see him again ...

Garry Edwards, October 2010

As he wasn't advertised on the bill If a comedy festival 'special' I thought i was safe. Imagine my disappointment when he was announced as being on the bill on the day of the gig. In fairness to the man, he was slightly better than the last two times I've seen him .... but that's really only like saying that "the 3rd time I was raped was easier as i sorta knew what to expect". Had he been advertised as being on the bill I would have avoided. Sorry.

Ni Tle, October 2010

Have had the unfortunate experience of seeing him twice ... not in the least bit funny ... he's utter bum water. Sorry, but true

Ni Tle, September 2010

On the two occasions that I have seen him, he has been unambiguously unfunny and uninteresting. Avoid.

John, October 2009

Mick Sergeant was at my local comedy club a few weeks ago and he was surprisingly bad. After reading reviews on Chortle and the praising comments on here, I was expecting some fantastic jokes but all I heard was obvious masturbation routines, neighbour pranks and other hackneyed topics. He might be in character and therefore have a distinct angle, but you can't avoid the conclusion that it's pedestrian material. It may be well-executed with spot-on delivery and conviction, though the character is not complete without a new stamp on the world.

Marcia Connor, July 2009

Skip to page: 1 | 2