Exorcising 14 years of Tories via an hour of punchy and poignant hilarity
Mark Thomas, the long acclaimed comic, sometimes journalist and investigative reporter, returns to the stage in wake of the British general election and he’s got a lot to talk about. He returns in good form, keeping the crowd laughing for the entire set, with thoughtful, sometimes vicious, and always funny commentary on the abysmal state of British politics.
What Mark does best is use the absurdity, anger, and, at times, hilarity present in British politics and the public consciousness, as a launch pad for jokes exploring and exposing these cracks in the wall. As much as he can do clever, multi layered jokes he also delivers a number of ghastly (or amazing) one liners especially in the latter half of his show. His storytelling does well to help communicate long setups, especially those based on real world events, keeping the tension just right until he can pull out a succinct and brutal punchline. At the age of 61 with more than half his life of experience, his range of jokes, deliveries and topics is as wide as you’d expect. There’s something for everyone here, as long as everyone is people not fond of the Conservative party – so almost all of Scotland.
The biggest flaw is the lack of unique perspectives in a lot of the jokes. There’s nothing here that is wholly unique, difficult or perspective changing, but that’s not to say what is here isn’t funny – it’s some of the best Tory bashing around in an almost oversaturated market, but it does mean at times jokes are predictable, un-insightful and limits how much he can do with the set when relying on just jokes rather than blending it with his historically great journalistic work.
One of the highlights is towards the end where Mark discusses him finding love again at 61 relatively recently and it’s a really touching change, a blend of naked honesty and nice rejection of sex and relationships only being for the young to enjoy. Maybe it’s just the contrast from the rest of the set, but it was really welcome and unexpectedly intimate material. If Mark is not going to bring in his journalistic work into the set, then having more of this raw personal material could elevate the show and introduce more good opportunities to switch between the two for emotional impact as well as laughs, he already did this, but I would love to see more of it.
If you like punchy comedy, and have pent up frustrations from the last 14 years, get a ticket, and get a hilarious hour of comedy from a loved veteran.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/mark-thomas-gaffa-tapes