Impatient Productions in association with Blue Book Artist Management presents MARK WATSON – ‘The Can’t be it” Tour.
The events of the past twelve-and-a-bit months, to give them a politely evasive name, have made us all think more regularly about the fragility of life than we probably would have liked to. Nothing focuses the mind than having a ‘daily death toll’ with your late afternoon glass of wine, or a tired-looking government scientist showing graphs and using phrases like ‘we anticipate many, many more fatalities’ in what used to be the ‘Escape To The Country’ slot.
But luckily, neurotic Taskmaster-survivor and author Mark Watson has been stressing about the frightening prospect of death since before it became fashionable. His intended 2020 show – on the cusp of going to Melbourne and Edinburgh festivals, before a typically extensive nationwide tour – was inspired by taking a life expectancy test (there’s an app you can get, if you’re having an existential crisis at 3am) and discovering he could expect to reach 78: in other words, he’s just over halfway to, as it were, the finish line.
What should we be doing with our time on earth, and how can we do it better? Watson has made a lot of strides towards happiness and fulfilment over the past few years. But there’s one problem left: and it really is a big one. The popular but all-too-mortal Radio 4 figure, star of ‘Live At The Apollo’ and House Of Games’ (which he won, but it’s not all about that) wrestles with some of the fundamental questions of life, with unusually high levels of benign audience involvement and the gag rate of an already fast-talking comedian who’s been imprisoned his house for more than a year.
This show has been some time in the making, thanks to all that unpleasantness with the virus. He’s rarely looked forward to anything in his life. All those 41 years of it to date.
Mark Watson had a pretty lively lockdown, as they go. With Tim Key and Alex Horne, he created the game ‘No More Jockeys’ which has now had more than 2 million YouTube views and found a rabid cult audience. He published his most critically acclaimed book to date, ‘Contacts’, and wrote another, non-fiction, title for release this year. He pioneered the Drive And Dine series of outdoor comedy gigs at the depth of the pandemic, and his company, Impatient, were one of the only ones to offer ‘tour shows’ run through Zoom calls, entertaining thousands of ticket-buyers deprived of other live comedy. He also completed a trilogy of 24-hour online shows, raising around £70,000 for charities. In March he curated the only overseas shows to be part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival, as part of their digital programme. For all this, he was one of the winners of Chortle’s Legends Of Lockdown awards, recognising comics who had gone above and beyond to entertain in these extreme times.
Before that, in the old days, the future national treasure had been a multi-award winner here and in Australia (a country we were once allowed to visit); a very familiar voice on Radio 4, where his series ‘Mark Watson Talks About A Bit Of Life’ has been one of the station’s most popular fixtures since 2007; and has most recently been working on a film project with Toni Collette and Studio Canal (while the rights to his graphic novel, ‘Dan And Sam’ remain in the hands of Universal). The live arena, though, is where he’s in his element the most, and this will be an emotional return to the rooms where he has, for almost two decades, established himself as one of the UK’s favourite stand-ups. Emotional, but also funny. See you there.
“Quite unlike anything else I’ve seen in almost 20 years of covering the Fringe… witty, warm, perfectly judged”
★★★★★Telegraph
“This is a stand-up operating at the very top of his game”
★★★★ Independent
“He always displays an innate understanding of what the audience wants…creating a bespoke experience for every gig, an added flourish to a strong hour of stand-up”
★★★★ Chortle
“A quick-fire hour of fun”
★★★★ Metro
2022 TOUR DATES:
MAY
Thursday 5th Wyeside Arts Centre, Builth Wells
01982 552555 wyeside.co.uk
Friday 6th The North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford
01865319450 www.thenorthwall.com
Friday 13th Loughborough Town Hall, Loughborough
01509 231914 loughboroughtownhall.co.uk
Saturday 14th Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, Lincoln
01522 837600 lpac.co.uk
Sunday 15th The Old Rep Theatre, Birmingham
0121 359 9444 oldreptheatre.co.uk
Thursday 19th Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne
01202 885566 tivoliwimborne.co.uk
Friday 20th McMillan Theatre, Bridgwater
01278 556677 mcmillantheatre.com
Saturday 21st Tiverton Community Arts Theatre
07443 502523 tivertontheatre.com
Sunday 22nd Pavilions Teignmouth, Teignmouth
01626 249049 pavilionsteignmouth.org.uk
JUNE
Wednesday 1st Plowright Theatre, Scunthorpe
0844 844 0444 scunthorpetheatres.co.uk
Thursday 2nd Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal
01539 725133 breweryarts.co.uk
Friday 3rd The Atkinson, Southport
01704 533333 theatkinson.co.uk
Saturday 4th Derby Theatre, Derby
01332 593939 derbytheatre.co.uk
Saturday 5th City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds
0113 243 0808 leedsheritagetheatres.com/city-varieties-music-hall/
Friday 10th The Kenton Theatre, Henley-on-Thames
01491 525050 kentontheatre.co.uk
Saturday 11th Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester
01206 500900 colchesterartscentre.com
Friday 24th Kettering Arts Centre, Kettering
01536 513858 ketteringartscentre.com
Saturday 25th The Pyramid Arts Centre, Warrington
01925 442345 pyramid.culturewarrington.org
Sunday 26th South Hill Park Arts Centre & Wilde Theatre, Bracknell
01344 484123 www.southhillpark.org.uk
JULY
Friday 15th Gloucester Guildhall, Gloucester
01452 503050 gloucesterguildhall.co.uk
Saturday 16th Pontardawe Arts Centre, Pontardawe
01792 863722 npttheatres.co.uk/pontardawe/
Sunday 17th Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan
01239 621200 mwldan.co.uk
Tuesday 19th Epsom Playhouse, Epsom
01372 742555 epsomplayhouse.co.uk
Wednesday 20th The Theatre, Chipping Norton
01608 642350 chippingnortontheatre.com ON SALE JANUARY 2022
Thursday 21st The Place, Telford
01952 382 382 theplacetelford.com
Saturday 23rd Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen
01224 592755 thetivolitheatre.com
Sunday 24th Theatre Royal Dumfries, Dumfries
01387 254209 theatreroyaldumfries.co.uk
Saturday 30th The Point, Eastleigh
023 8065 2333 thepointeastleigh.co.uk
Sunday 31st The Corn Exchange, Exeter
01392 665938 exetercornexchange.co.uk
SEPTEMBER
Thursday 15th King’s Hall & Winter Garden, Ilkley
01274432000 bradford-theatres.co.uk/venues/kings-hall-ilkley
OCTOBER
7TH October Helmsley Art Centre
01439771700 helmsleyarts.co.uk
