Mark Watson, I’m not sure where to start with this funny one, as I’m still chuckling away to myself thinking of this young (he’d like that) man’s warm humour, great audience connection and open and honest nature after seeing his The Infinite Show at Theatr Clwyd. Just thinking about some of the topics Watson spoke about, namely certain men’s love of watches, ET, Center Parcs, his failings at 20/20 vision, bees in sinks, no-names-mentioned other comedians, school lateness and lots more brings a nice big smile to my face. To be honest, it can take a lot to make me genuinely laugh, I’m growing cynical with age, but this man did in bucket loads. First a bit about the man Watson himself and his inspiration.
Watson is a British comedian and novelist who himself says this show is inspired by the mostly alarming state of the world his children are growing up in, and a genuine, urgent desire to do something about it, it is also about empathy. 99 percent of the world’s population is made up of other people: why can’t we understand them? And indeed I feel empathy is a huge link here as Watson shows great empathy, and a need to understand his near packed out Mold audience. He even managed a just short of 20 minutes talking about North Wales itself, and his previous gigs which, for certain reasons had us all in hysterics from the off.
An interesting fact about Watson is that although he himself was not born in Wales (it was actually Bristol) he used to deliver his act with a Welsh accent. He said that it made him "more comfortable to be talking in a voice that I didn't quite recognise as my own". He has since reverted to his own accent. To me this makes perfect sense, I felt there was an awkwardness to Watson, a very watchable, charismatic one at that, but yes I just felt an insecurity hidden away there, a shyness perhaps, and ‘putting on’ another voice, he could have indeed almost been someone else with a ‘new’ accent. I’d loved to have delved deeper and got to know more about him but true to Watson form he wanted to get to know about US and to be honest that is quite appealing. People just waffling on about themselves can be a little ‘me, me, me’ I loved that he was so interested in the audience, and I definitely felt he had a connection with everyone. Unfortunately Watson had mislaid his glasses so he couldn’t actually see further than perhaps the first two rows and the rest of us were in darkness...I’ve never seen him live before so no idea whether his squint is a permanent thing, but it did add to the fact that he truly couldn’t see a darn thing! However I’m sure he could still feel the energy we gave him, it was like a tennis match us all hitting the ball back and forth, his good humour, our warm audible reaction..and on it went. Him talking about various topics had me in fits of giggles - he really is a funny guy!
A running theme throughout The Infinite Show is this interaction, and pre-show there are postcards for audience members to write on. Printed in bold writing at the top is; “What’s the thing about you that people don’t empathise with? Your strangest opinion, habit or character trait? Anything about you that others find odd? Tell me! We’ll collect these postcards before the show! Mark x”
During the show Watson read out some of these postcards..there were phobias to balloons, and turkeys, a dog grooming habit which could have taken a whole new direction, a football-loving father buried at a football ground, near the goal I believe..which Watson although stunned like me at this fact found a warm humour when talking about it. I feel like Watson too, a need to learn a lot about people’s own stories, their lives, you really do learn so much, ironically about your own self too, and it was so lovely to hear people’s fun and interesting quirks. Of course I had to fill in a postcard too..I thought I’d take in some of his honesty and mentioned I was reviewing his show but that I wanted to get to know about HIM, his own weird phobia or quirk. It was a long shot as I handed my postcard in at the interval after the others had all been handed in. Well yes mine was the first he read out back from the interval! He mentioned he had never been asked about himself before so was a bit thrown but he thought he’d mention his phobia. Lightning, he doesn’t like it. I wasn’t expecting that one - so yes it is fun and interesting hearing all about other people.
A particularly funny moment of the show for me was Watson talking about stressful times..divorce, bereavement oh and in third place, thinking your phone has been on charge and then realising it wasn’t, either due to the switch not on, or the cable not in correctly etc, oh how we as an audience could relate to that, get back to your phone thinking you’ve a great big 100% when in reality you’re still on 6%!! Although extremely humorous, perhaps a reflection too of our sad times and lack of human to human interaction, our phones are taking over the world!
Watson talks openly about his family, his young children and some of his own relationship journeys. I did wonder if he was being too open at some points but I felt he couldn’t help it, it just tumbles out of his mouth. We the audience I think appreciated him all the more for this honesty though! His chat about his dear mum and Banksy, oh my goodness what a hoot that story was! His openness about the world, about the need for us all to try and bond and connect with each other was very moving. I can relate to that very much.
So, I can say with my hand on my heart you would never be disappointed going to watch this officially crowned ‘38th sexiest Jew on Twitter’ (except as Watson points out, he isn’t actually Jewish!) in action. You will be laughing (the best medicine) from the off and yet you will leave having got to know a bit more about your fellow humans you share this world with and hopefully a bit more understanding and compassion for one another too. I was fortunate enough to meet with the man himself after the show, he still hadn’t found his glasses but greeted me with the exact same warmth, humour and friendliness I had witnessed up on that stage and I’d strongly recommend a visit to see him if he finds his way over to a venue near you soon!
Reviewer - Mary Fogg
on - 7/7/19
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