7 hours ago
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Who did you look up to when you were starting out as a comedian?
I wanted to learn everything at once, so I found as many DVDs and videos of standups as I could. The people who stood out were the ones doing it a bit differently. Obviously, the standard answer is Stewart Lee. When I saw his 41st Best Standup Ever show, I realised you can do anything when you’re up there. People like Rhod Gilbert, Lee Mack and Noel Fielding, in the early days before they were famous, also blew my mind.
How would you describe your style of comedy?
I do one-liners. I’m a joke teller. A gagsmith.
What’s your process of writing new material?
I’m quite good at spotting wordplay in life. I had a conversation with a friend once and he said, “I change my Facebook password from time to time.” And I said: “That’s pointless. That’s the same word.” My brain went straight to the wordplay. Then I’ll write that in my notes. When I’ve got maybe 10 notes with ideas, that’s when I sit down and craft the jokes.
Can you recall a gig so bad it’s now funny?
Coventry Showcase Cinema ran a comedy night but it’s a terrible setup because everyone’s in comfy chairs and too relaxed. The first one I did was going terribly from the start. A heckler kept piping up every so often to tell me when another audience member had left the room. When I finished, I thought, “Well, at least I’ll never have to do this gig ever again.” I got booked for it again the next week.
Any standout gigs from your career?
The first time I did Glastonbury festival, to a full tent of maybe a thousand people. That was the most I’d ever played to. I happened to be on before Josh Widdicombe so everyone was piling into the tent early to watch him, so I played to that massive crowd.
The first time I did a tour show was quite something because people had actually come specifically to see me. That just blew my mind. Now with the new tour, I just did Nottingham Playhouse. Halfway through the show I came out of myself a bit. I was like: there are 700 people here to see my show. It’s just amazing. I’m so lucky.
How would you describe your show, Jest to Impress?
It’s for people who like jokes – one-liners, gags, wordplay. The beauty of comedy is there are so many different styles and there’s a lot of brilliant pieces of work out there where comedians are tackling the issues of the world. That’s not what this is. This is where you can come for an hour and forget about the issues of the world, enjoy the silliness and have a laugh for the sake of having a laugh.
On your podcast you discuss jokes that haven’t come off …
One of the reasons I do it is because you could have a joke that technically works but doesn’t for an audience – and there are many different reasons why. I’ve got one that is a bit niche: “I was driving the other day, flicked on the radio, started listening to Magic, which was rubbish because it’s quite a visual artform.” I found audiences sometimes took a while to connect the dots – Magic FM is quite London-centric. When you’re going around the country, if you say Magic, they straight away jump to tricks and spells. So that’s one that I like but I can’t do because it doesn’t work consistently.
You won Dave’s Joke of the Fringe in 2024, the year before they scrapped it. Do awards like this help standup as a craft or are they reductive?
I think it is great for what it is. It’s not a judgment of comedy as a whole, but as far as the joke-writing artform goes, it’s great fun. People like reading jokes. They like telling jokes. They like having an opinion on jokes. So it’s a bit of fun. For a one-liner comedian, that’s the one we want because you know it highlights what we do, so it’s a shame they’re not running it any more. But I also quite like being the undefeated champion.
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Mark Simmons: Jest to Impress is on tour in the UK and Ireland until 28 November.
