It's all in the delivery!
Mark Simmons travels 12,000 miles to deliver birthday card for fan
It’s not unusual for comedians to have second jobs – and now former Mock The Week regular Mark Simmons has expanded his CV by adding ’international courier’ to his repertoire.
At a recent gig in Nelson, New Zealand, an audience member asked the stand-up to deliver a birthday card to his mother in Silsden, West Yorkshire… and he agreed.
The request came after the comic started asking his crowd about their hobbies, ready to crack a pun about whatever they suggested.
But comedy fan Darren Meer, who was sitting in the front row, said his favourite pastime was 'asking comedians for favours’.
'I outlined the situation and told him I had bought tickets to his Silsden show in England for my mother’s 80th birthday a couple of weeks later,’ the punter explained.
As he had a broken foot at the time Darren couldn’t fly long-haul, and he added:’With encouragement from the audience Mark agreed to carry the card back to England and deliver it to my 80-year-old mother.
‘He kept his word and made my mum, Patricia, incredibly happy with a card from her new favourite son, one of five.
‘Fantastic live show in Nelson and my 80 year old mum loved it too in England.’
At the Yorkshire show this week Simmons made a gag out of his task, explaining: ‘Darren told me where his mum was sitting so I did a pretend mind-reading and she couldn’t believe how I knew so much about her’.
Simmons, who won Dave’s Joke of the Fringe at the Edinburgh Fringe last year will be on tour in 2026 with his new show Jest To Impress.
Published: 11 Jun 2025
