Bottom made me realise I wanted to become a performer

Will Mars picks his Perfect Playlist

Fringe comedian Will Mars picks some of his comedy favourites.

Steptoe and Son

The first sitcom I remember laughing at was Steptoe and Son, and I absolutely loved it as a kid. I used to sprint towards the television whenever I heard the theme tune, and I still have a visceral reaction to it today.

Harold’s desperate attempts to escape his father and become ‘somebody’ completely captivated me. I guess it’s because I had problems with my father too. He was the sort of man that made a lot of empty gestures, such as waving glasses at barmaids.

Eddie Murphy

I’m the middle child in my family. Although my brother is a lot older than me, so who knows how long that’ll last.

Having an older brother had one main advantage: he gave me access to Eddie Murphy at a young age. He got hold of a pirate copy of Eddie Murphy’s Delirious album on VHS and it quickly became the tape I watched on repeat most weekends.

I was only around six years old so I had no idea that he was performing stand-up because I didn’t know what that was until much later. All I knew was, the only sound - apart from the theme tune to Steptoe and Son - that could send me insane was the chime of the ice cream van on a Saturday afternoon. Eddie nailed it for all working-class six-year-olds with this bit:

Trading Places

A year or so after I discovered Eddie, I discovered one of his early movies, Trading Places. The 1980s really was a fine time for comedy movies with the likes of Eddie, Steve Martin and John Candy around.

Trading Places was a feature that had it all for me. It had Eddie, it had a fantastic script, and it had a poor man making it rich. That last element was like catnip to a poor kid like me. And to be crystal clear, we were really poor. We were so poor, my brother, my sister and I grew up thinking three meals a day meant one each.

Game On

As a teenager I was half sporty, half nerdy and obsessed with girls (despite not being able to talk to them). Game On had a nerdy guy, a sporty guy and Samantha Janus all trapped in a flat share. It was a perfect fit.

I spent most of my teenage years either at college or watching shows like this on repeat in my bedroom. If I wasn't in either of those places then I'd likely be at work. As a teenager I had more jobs than girlfriends. I had one job.

Bottom

Bottom was another show that helped me through my teenage years. In a small way, it was the show that made me realise I wanted to become a performer.

I loved every inch of dialogue between Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson. I even bought the script book so a friend and I could memorise chunks of it and perform excerpts on break time at school. One scene in particular led to a few broken windows and I was almost expelled.

This scene with the gas man calling to check the meter was amongst my favourites. As a kid I’d seen my mother evade a meter man many times. I’ve dodged the odd one myself as an adult too.

Sam Kinison

The funniest thing in the world to me is a quick transition from one emotional state to another, and nobody does that quite like Sam Kinison. Quite simply, he’s the reason I do stand-up (so that’s who you have to blame).