Mark Watson

Mark Watson

A former Cambridge Footlighter, Mark Watson first made an impact on the comedy circuit in 2002 when he won the Daily Telegraph Open Mic competition andwas a runner-up in So You Think You're Funny?

He has become known for his Edinburgh shows (2005's 50 Years Before Death And The Awful Prospect Of Enternity was nominated for the Perrier) and his gruelling shows that last more than 24 hours. Perrier's successor, the if.comeddies, awarded the panel award for best capturing the spirit of the fringe, in 2007.

Watson won the Chortle award winner for innovation in 2005, when he was also nominated for best breakthrough act, and was nominated for best compere in 2007.

He is also a novelist, with his debut Bullet Points, published in 2003; has written for TV and in 2007 landed his first radio series, Mark Watson Makes The World Substantially Better.

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Official Website

© Matt Crockett

Mark Watson: Search

Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Excuse us for adding to Mark Watson’s digital footprint. Search is ostensibly about the sheer amount of information already existing in the world and how the comic has recently lost his status as an all-knowing oracle for his son, having given the 13-year-old his first phone. And, of course, one of the first things the lad googled was his dad.

This watershed triggers broader fears of impending redundancy in the comic as the teenager becomes his own man, also inspiring fortysomething Watson to think of his own father - a retired chemistry teacher with zero online presence. 

The former Taskmaster contestant’s fears of inadequacy, always bubbling under despite all the tangible evidence of his success, are heightened when Google suggests: ‘What is the point of Mark Watson?’ as an autocomplete.

He’s so insecure that a withering comment from an arrogant customer back when he worked on a supermarket checkout as a youth still haunts him to the point his whole life and career could be driven by the need to prove him wrong. Is the constant, hilarious, self-deprecation his way of mocking himself before a meaner-spirited outsider does?

 Such anxieties lend Watson a vulnerability that the audience can identify and may explain his fast delivery, powered by a nervy energy that packs in the content with overlapping stories and digressions gabbled out in a race against the clock. ‘We haven’t got time,’ is a constant refrain.

His running commentary on the gig, a trademark Watson move, always adds an ‘in-the-moment’ air, starting from when he chats to the audience as they take their seat, blurring the line between the on-stage comedian and the real him, adding to the authenticity. In an amusing aside, he imagines himself as a football manager and his jokes the players he sends out to play.

Revealing a bit more about his family life, he speaks of his seven-year-old daughter and the complications that being divorced brings to his life, though you suspect that whatever the situation, the ever-fretful Watson would find complications where there were none. And there’s also commentary on everyday technology beyond Google, such as the parent in the school WhatsApp group who just can’t stay silent.

You could level the same comment at Watson, but at least he’s got plenty to say. More, perhaps that can be jammed into an hour that nonetheless provides an entertaining voyage into his worries, relatable but exaggerated.

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Published: 28 Aug 2023

Far Too Happy

The Footlights gang have been nothing if not ambitious…
1/01/2009

Past Shows

Edinburgh Fringe 2001

Far Too Happy


Montreal 2009

Britcom gala 2009


Agent

We do not currently hold contact details for Mark Watson's agent. If you are a comic or agent wanting your details to appear here, for a one-off fee of £59, email steve@chortle.co.uk.

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