REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival – Marcus Brigstocke 9th June 2023 @ The Corn Exchange

A Top-Class Comedian At Work

Andy Fawthrop

The Devizes Arts Festival hit the half-way stage last night with an absolute sell-out performance. Honestly, you couldn’t move in the Corn Exchange last night, with every possible space used to get people in. Thank goodness the aircon was working!

You’d probably have to have been living on another planet not to know who Marcus Brigstocke is. In my book, he’s a major comedy talent as writer, actor, presenter and performer. Since the mid-1990s, he’s been on TV and on Radio 4 more frequently than you’ve heard about a Tory political scandal, which is quite a lot.

Last night he did two sets – one short introductory session, before bringing on New Zealander Jarred Christmas, and then a much longer second session to fill the second half.

Christmas’ appearance was something of a surprise to me, since no support act had been billed, and I suspect also to most of the people in the room. Also no stranger to TV and radio, his set was funny and engaging. Hitting on themes such as Zoom, the Haka, drinking pints of Baileys, body changes, incontinence and what he referred to as the British Army’s use of “decompression” camps in Malta for servicemen returning to the UK from Iraq and Afghanistan. There were a string of good running gags, a few of which could never be repeated here.

But, good as he was, he wasn’t the reason people had bought tickets in their hundreds. We’d all come to see Mr. Brigstocke, and his main set was well worth waiting for. Starting off at a gentle canter, he poked light fun at the Coronation, the Queen’s reputation as being “funny”, and the reasons why he’d quite enjoyed the lockdown period of Covid (“the best two Christmases I’ve ever had”, the shared single-use face-mask, the saving vaccines, and the devastating impact on cottaging on Clapham Common).

Building up the pace, he began to lay into the “wellness” movement, with particular scorn reserved for Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop products (especially scented candles, and vagina-steaming – I’ll never look at a dishwasher quite the same way again). Gradually his laser-like sarcasm alighted on subjects as varied as rolling TV news (we don’t really need it), the need to stop asking “thick people” what they happen to think about complex subjects (they have no bloody idea), and some of the latest political news. Having got that off his chest, he drew the set to a gentler close by talking of his more recent personal life, his second marriage, his new child and being a parent again.

My take was that (as I’d fully expected him to be), Marcus was extremely funny. The audience clearly loved it too, and cheered to the rafters. But what makes him so good? My personal analysis is that his skill lies in his light touch. He skewers his subject with a sharp stiletto rather (as some lesser comics do) bludgeoning his subjects to death. He makes his point and moves on. Whilst he riffs on a theme, he doesn’t labour the joke. He swears very rarely, so that when he does it’s for real emphasis, not to “shock”. He does pick on a few people in the audience, but in the best possible way. He belittles and shames no-one (he reserves his hatred and contempt for self-serving politicians), and uses the interactions to make friends or simply to emphasise a point he’s making. He avoids all the lazy techniques beloved of lesser comics. Definitely a master craftsman.

An absolutely cracking night out – well done the folks at DAF for bringing such a great performer to our little old town.

The Devizes Arts Festival continues at various venues around town until next Saturday 17th June.

Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk