I could have been at Kylie tonight, but I went to see this guy instead. I'm not sure why an unfamiliar New York comedian took preference, but there you go.
The acoustics in the 02 Academy suck for comedians. The sound booms, killing any comic intimacy. Not that support act Doug Key required that, with his material mainly focusing on his sexual exploits and their consequences. He struggled to warm up the audience with jokes about the birth of his son, breastfeeding, lube and dildoes. I liked one gag in his routine concerning first-date sex with a porn star, a neat call back relating her sexual kink and her apartment, but the rest left me cold. I had no desire to buy one of his stickers after the show.
Before the show, I knew little about Mark Normand. I'd watched twenty minutes of his standup on YouTube and figured he knew his stuff. He had some great lines, making funny connections on relatable topics. The blurb compared him to Jerry Seinfeld, but he's not. Yes, his material is beautifully written and well delivered, but I don't see Jerry making as many jokes about religions, trans people, and women. Mark's not a shock comedian in the style of, say, the excellent Doug Stanhope, but he mines a vein of comedy that's on the safe side of that border. Things 'Ya Don't Say' sums him up well.
His audience was predominantly young and male. My wife likened them to the Andrew Tate crowd, guffawing too loudly at the jokes about women, not comprehending they were spoken in jest. I noticed many of them had drunk a skinful before and during the show, not least because of the frequency with which they required the rest of the row to stand up to let them out to the toilet. The skinful also showed in other ways, such as their back fat bulging above the waist of their white t-shirts, with their slight beer bellies presenting like the signs of early pregnancy (I can say this as I'm from the demographic whose stomach gives the appearance of carrying twins, Ben and Jerry, thanks to a lifetime of sugar abuse - how I'm not dead is a miracle of modern medicine). I got a bit pissed off with so many of them holding up their cameras to snap pictures during the show. The staff did nothing to stop this, which was irritating.
On the night, Mark did well to hold the Friday night crowd's attention, generating frequent laughs, but he ended oddly, stumbling around for jokes on recent topical subjects. As such, he didn't close strong, so when his support act returned to get the audience to cheer for him, it felt like Mark was being rescued. Not a good way to end the show.
On balance, I would have preferred Kylie.
Ticket Price: 2 Full Price Tickets £37.50 x2 £75.00
Per Item Fees £5.10 (Service Charge Full Price Ticket) x2
£1.75 (Facility Charge Full Price Ticket) x2 £13.70
Order Processing Fees Handling Fee (£2.85) £2.85
Total £91.55 from Ticketmaster
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