Every so often you get the opportunity to take part in one of those ‘you had to be there’ moments and, in the case of Mark Watson’s latest endeavour, you really had to be there for fourteen plus hours to get the full effect.
Lauded as a shameless act of self-publicity, Mark Watson’s Overambitious 24hour Show turned out to be one of the most beautiful events of the Fringe that Hairline has ever experienced. Okay, if viewed solely on it’s content the show would fair pretty badly but as an experience and demonstration of communal spirit it was unsurpassed.
Not only did a number of comedians (Adam Hills, Stewart Lee, Jenny Eclair, Adam Bloom, Andrew McClelland and Janey Godley to name but a few) turn up to offer their support and occasionally do a wee slot, the audience themselves did a huge amount, from minding the door in the early hours to going out for sandwiches, cushions and other paraphernalia. Most of all they were there to support Watson and jolly him along through the hard times.
This sort of support wasn’t always needed, like when Adam Hills turned up (he ended up doing three separate slots, performing his rarely seen Terminator 2 impression, giving three teenage girls £100 so they could get a taxi to Perth after the show and massaging the frankly disgusting feet of Wayne Williams, who had been flyering for 24hours – all that and they still haven’t given this man the Perrier!), but it was definitely appreciated during the low moments. The most prolific of these was a post Late ‘n’ Live visit from a drunken Dara O’Brian, who managed to rubbish the show and destroy the mood (he later apologised and made up with Mark, partly thanks to Adam Hills – what can’t he do?). The solution to this downer? How about an audience singalong of Here Comes The Sun and an impromptu game of ‘Guess Which Comedian Proposed To An Audience Member After Meeting Her Four Hours Ago”? Perfect!
In the end, Mark Watson’s show had little to do with comedy and structured entertainment and was more of a tenacious struggle to kindle something special out of a ridiculous situation. Somehow this worked and a smattering of friends and Fringe-goers who witnessed the majority of the show became an integral part of a show that defied logic and combined the vagaries of human existence into an event that proved that undiluted humanity can still overpower the seemingly unstoppable forces of commercialism.
By the end I was sweaty, pizza stained and on the verge of full-blown hallucinations but I can still say that it was one of the most amazing days of my life. It was an undoubtedly pointless endeavour but at least I can say I lived it and helped make part of Fringe history.
Richard Biggs
