Size isn't everything
By the time you read this Mark Watson ought to have successfully completed his endurance test of a gig, performing continuously for 2005 minutes, around 33 hours. I can’t confirm it, however, because when I went along at 10pm the gig was full and I couldn’t get in.
It’s a heroically impressive feat, and he deserves all the support and praise, but it is also strangely pointless. Welshman Watson is one of the least macho men in comed, yet this record-breaking gig is the ultimate display of comic testosterone, proving that in every wimp on the circuit there lurks the alpha male sensibility of the biggest, hairiest mountain gorilla. In an intensely competitive world Watson has proved he can keep going longer than any of his rivals. Well done, now get some sleep lad.
As my my own Supersize Me endurance test of going to Fringe comedy gigs every day for over three weeks I think I’m over the worst middle-week lumpy stage. Funnily Morgan Spurlock’s film was mentioned in a show this evening by Angelo Tsarouchas (Pleasance), a Canadian-Greek 375lb man-mountain from Toronto. The meat of his appetising set was about how he has dealt with his weight - it isn’t a problem to him, he loves his food so gets fat. In fact he admits that when he came out of Supersize Me “I never craved MacDonald's more in my life.”
I can’t say that I’m likely to feel the same craving for comedy at the end of August, but I can see what he means. The more bad gigs I go to, the more I crave good gigs. When Edinburgh ends I won’t take a break, I’ll just be more discriminating, going for gourmet gigs rather than mainlining open-mic talent nights – the Pot Noodles of the stand-up world.
Although having said that the standard of new talent seems pretty high here. On Sunday I judged a semi-final of newcomers competition So You Think You Are Funny. It is only open to comedians who have been gigging for less than a year yet there were three acts on the bill who I think could make a living in the business. Joe Wilkinson from south London justified his place in next week’s final with some brilliantly delivered one-liners such as “If you laid all the smokers in the world from end to end...two thirds of them would drown.” It’s the kind of simple, effective killer line that puts seasoned stand-ups to shame. As long as I keep hearing gags like this my gigathon will be easy.
It’s a heroically impressive feat, and he deserves all the support and praise, but it is also strangely pointless. Welshman Watson is one of the least macho men in comed, yet this record-breaking gig is the ultimate display of comic testosterone, proving that in every wimp on the circuit there lurks the alpha male sensibility of the biggest, hairiest mountain gorilla. In an intensely competitive world Watson has proved he can keep going longer than any of his rivals. Well done, now get some sleep lad.
As my my own Supersize Me endurance test of going to Fringe comedy gigs every day for over three weeks I think I’m over the worst middle-week lumpy stage. Funnily Morgan Spurlock’s film was mentioned in a show this evening by Angelo Tsarouchas (Pleasance), a Canadian-Greek 375lb man-mountain from Toronto. The meat of his appetising set was about how he has dealt with his weight - it isn’t a problem to him, he loves his food so gets fat. In fact he admits that when he came out of Supersize Me “I never craved MacDonald's more in my life.”
I can’t say that I’m likely to feel the same craving for comedy at the end of August, but I can see what he means. The more bad gigs I go to, the more I crave good gigs. When Edinburgh ends I won’t take a break, I’ll just be more discriminating, going for gourmet gigs rather than mainlining open-mic talent nights – the Pot Noodles of the stand-up world.
Although having said that the standard of new talent seems pretty high here. On Sunday I judged a semi-final of newcomers competition So You Think You Are Funny. It is only open to comedians who have been gigging for less than a year yet there were three acts on the bill who I think could make a living in the business. Joe Wilkinson from south London justified his place in next week’s final with some brilliantly delivered one-liners such as “If you laid all the smokers in the world from end to end...two thirds of them would drown.” It’s the kind of simple, effective killer line that puts seasoned stand-ups to shame. As long as I keep hearing gags like this my gigathon will be easy.
posted by Bruce Dessau @ 12:40 AM
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