An intimate venue at the Stockton Arc and Mark Watson made the night a total success. Spending 10 minutes before the show wandering around the theatre happily chatting with the audience makes him a friendly, open character as well as seriously funny one. At 8 o'clock he walked down the theatre trying to catch everyone's attention; not on stage but standing near the 4th row. He gave a full-hearted welcome and but was worried about his entrance, saying it was a boring start to the show. He suggested he should hide which everyone found really childishly fun. Having tried stairs and the speakers, a man suggested Mark should hide under his seat. Mark was open for anything and shifted past 10 people to hide under this man's seat and then shouted: 'Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mark Watson! Excuse me mate, can I just get past.' Hilarious 1st half getting the crowd warmed up with his stories about a sausage roll and his family before his stress-related health scare. The 2nd is him saying how he tried to avoid stress and how afraid he is to speak up for himself, from being touched by a man near Cardiff station and hearing a sex song while in the car with his dad. Not a bad crowd and Watson worked them to his advantage. True though, you get the full effect of Watson's comedy from the more intimate venues. Nevertheless, a great comedian. Well worth a watch.

Sean Prower, March 2009

Mark can be very funny, with an engaging personality but I think Pleasance Grand may be a bit big for him.

Ian, August 2008

For whatever reason I'd not caught up with Mark Watson before this year. I'd seen him on Mock The Week etc and was thoroughly looking forward to this... and it was ordinary. He worked the audience up - but it came across as the staple of a good compere rather than someone now playing the big gigs. His hangdog Welsh miserabilism was funny without being pant wetting. I can't say he'd run out of ideas because I've not seen an hour of his before but the show was decidedly stretched - 3 out of 5 and only because it was half price

Andy, August 2008

I cannot believe this man is a comedian.My memories from the show are based around a ranting Welshman talking about his experience of traveling around Britain on trains! Managed to stay and watch around 40 mins of the show (due to the fact that we we were in the middle of our row of seats), however, it soon became unbearable and my partner and I decided we had to leave. No offence to this comedian but I have never seen a show as bad as this in my life - i think the only thing I could possibly compare it to would be a film I saw a while back with no plot what so ever and subtitles.

Nicola, August 2008

We saw Mark Watson at the Arts Theatre in London at a try-out for his 2008 Fringe show. He was on great form that night, a real avalanche of laughs. He's funny, endearing and has the best delivery in the business. Worth every penny of flying over from Holland to see him perform.

Wilfred Berkhof, July 2008