“It’s been three years since I came to Melbourne, which is quite a long gap,” acknowledges Mark Watson, a returning comedy festival favourite. “In that time, I’ve had various issues with depression, drinking, mid-life crisis.. I’ve quite had an eventful life in the past three years!”
In his latest show, Flaws, Watson exhibits a brilliant alchemy, turning his inner turmoil into comedy gold. Fans can expect a slight change of pace this time around. “Flaws is a much darker, more personal show than I’ve tended to do in the past. It is basically about my own flaws that I identify within myself and about human fallibility in general,” Watson reveals. “I’ve been touring the show for a long time now. I’m bringing it to Melbourne in kind of the most refined form, because I’ve been working on it for such a long time. Certainly, it’s tended to be one of my most uplifting shows as well, because I’ve taken the audience on that emotional journey.”
Flaws has presented a fresh challenge for Watson, luring him from his self-styled comfort zone. But, as Watson points out, it’s good to push yourself as a performer. “In the past, I’ve kind of shied away from doing personal stuff to an extent, so there’s much more of a sense of release and reward in this show. If it goes well. Of course, if it goes badly and you’ve really exposed yourself, then you just feel like shit,” laughs Watson. “But that’s the risk we take. That’s what it’s like being a stand-up, anyway: there’s always fairly high stakes, I’ve just made the stakes a little higher for this show.”
Watson generally favours a hectic, high-stakes lifestyle, juggling parenthood and comedy, as well as television, radio and writing. That trademark manic energy of his must surely come in handy? “I’m quite a nervy, hyper-energetic sort of person. In a way, it’s not really a persona. I suppose I do repress a lot of my personality in everyday life. Manic energy is quite useful in a comedy show but it’s not that useful in a dinner party or at a parents evening at school or something,” Watson quips.
“It’s probably true to say that I don’t exactly put it on as a persona for the stage, but on stage, I do release aspects of my personality that I generally keep locked up. When it’s going well, doing live shows really gives me the opportunity to feel like myself in a way that I don’t often feel in everyday life…which is, again, the same for a lot of comedians, I think,” he muses. “It is quite a cliche, being this performer that starts to feel more at home on stage than anywhere else. It is quite a show business cliche, so I’m resistant to the idea, but there is a lot of truth in that.”
Interestingly, Watson still tends to identify as an introvert. “It’s just that getting on stage gives you such a chance to be an extrovert. I’m an introvert who gets one hour a day to be a complete lunatic,” he explains, before the conversation inevitably turns to his marathon Comic Relief effort last month. “I treated myself to 27 hours of extroversion on that occasion!”
This festival marks the end of Flaws, Watson keen to plot a new course. “I’ve done it in Edinburgh and I’ve toured it. The next step is to develop a new show and, if all goes well, I might end up coming back to Melbourne to premiere the show there. That’d be the dream.”
BY NICK MASON
