Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast with Mark Watson #72

Improvisation, my Dear (Mark) Watson.
Richard is reeling from forgetting about his daughter and another attack on his home (how will he ever sell it?), but excited to be welcoming the eponymous star of Improvisation, my Dear Mark Watson to the stage and hoping to talk about nothing but that title for a full hour.
Alas he gets distracted into discussing aversion to non-binding cheese, how thunder storms are the UK’s biggest killer, advertising pear cider and the criticisms that that engendered and Watson’s love of dry stone-walling. Richard continues to try and pinpoint where having sex with a machine counts as infidelity and tries to encourage Mark to enact some of his fans’ sexual fantasies. Also find out why Watson was the Rachel Dolezal of Wales.
The videos of these shows are now available for FREE on iTunes and KZbin and vimeo. If you'd like to make a donation to keep these services and this show running then give a one-off or monthly sum of your choice at gofasterstripe.com/badges. Or come and see Richard on tour richardherring.com/lotds/tour
Buy tickets for Richard’s ridiculous attempt to perform all 12 of his solo shows here - leicestersquar...

[@SerendipityChild]

0:00 🎤 Sundries 1:24 🚙 Intro: Spa Hotel anecdote 6:49 💜 Guest: Mark Watson, of improvisation my dear Mark Watson 10:23 🧀 Cheese, lightning, and hypnotism 16:02 🤖 loop holes and forgotten children 22:42 🏉 AFL and the Watson Cup 25:49 🤐 Ctrl+Z 26:40 ⚔️ Welsh Accent and Anglo-Welsh war 31:53 🍐100% Pear 0% Disappointment ... oh my 49:15 💕 Confessions 53:22 🤪 Marathon Shows, Writing Books, Blogging and Kids 1:06:42❓ Emergency Question and a Dry Stone Wall 1:10:40 🗝️ Broken Rib 1:11:58 🤗 leave-taking and credits

[@agressivemuffin]

I LOVE Mark Watson!

[@bulletproofblouse]

Give it to me straight, like a pea cider made from 100% pea.

[@kimaboe]

I thought David Mitchell summed up the advertising thing pretty well, to paraphrase "If I don't have a problem buying something from a company, it only follows logically that I would also be willing to sell them something".

[@weavehole]

I grew up as a bit of a Hicks obsessive but our dear Mark Watson here has laid out a good argument for taking The Man's dolla dolla bill. The taking the patronage of a wealthy benefactor for their gains in order to secure funds for his own artistic dream argument. Not the advertising doesn't work argument: that's just silly.

[@MrLien2U]

"So you're going for the I need money dollar" ;)

[@weavehole]

Big market. HUge. A smart guy to do that.

[@junbh2]

weavehole Well, it sounds like he doesn't actually find advertising pear cider morally objectionable. He basically says he drinks himself and thinks adults should be able to make their own decisions about it. So we may not see it the same way, but it seems like it's in line with his own personal values.

[@gedscouserable]

Give it to us straight, like a pear cider made with 100% pear(s).

[@TheStevenWhiting]

All he had to say for the advert argument is "I've got two kids. Its a job, I got paid. I can now use that money to look after my kids, enough said. Fuck what anyone else thinks". Simple.

[@sfoster.23]

Anyone else think Mark’s funnier when in conversation than on stage? Perhaps because he’s more relax

[@bobthegrinch]

I really never thought the Stewart Lee bit about Magners was about anything other than how ridiculous the "Give it to me straight like a pear cider made from 100% pears" line was.

[@sfoster.23]

31:58 Cider chat - you’re welcome

[@PaulieBrierley]

That's why I'm here. To have it given to me straight, like a pear cider made from 100% pears.

[@rob-890]

Thanks for giving it to me straight like a .... oh you know the rest.

[@petelewis7801]

ONE MASSIVE PEAR

[@DogOfKrondor]

You can have a go at RH about his style but he has sat back and let MW, SF & others talk and get the best out of them. Well done Richard great podcasts. Shame you may never have Frankie on. Maybe Paul Whitehouse?

[@peterdavies4306]

Ooh, Paul Whitehouse would be good!

[@rivak98]

this banter is gold

[@ajphilton]

Cheers Richard. Another good one.

[@FutureAbe]

What comedians would you like to see on this podcast? My pick would be Sean Lock, I think. There are so many good candidates

[@Letmegetthatforyou]

Abe Grimm Mark Lamarr!

[@thekaratekidpartii2169]

***** definitely!

[@MrLien2U]

Abe Grimm Bill Burr! He is genuinely one of the few comedians from the US that is funny.

[@bulletproofblouse]

Abe Grimm Gregg "The Prooper" Proops was in London doing his proopcast recently, I was really hoping he'd be on. Also would like to hear (or see) Marc Maron on Ruh-hur-luh-stuh-puh and Rich on WTF.

[@weavehole]

Abe Grimm Adam Sandler and Roy Chubby Brown and Louis CK. All for different reasons obviously.

[@sfoster.23]

IM SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THATS A COINCIDENCE AM I???!!!!

[@bgp_sammy]

Excellent content... really impressed with the podcasts :)

[@TheVandralretard]

i love you richard keith herring

[@Richard_Jones]

I must be old, I remember Mark watson, 'The Welsh Years.'

[@cyphnar]

Is the end of the interview the birth of sfone clearing?

[@maladaptvs]

“the last thing i want to do is eat cheese” - watson, 2016

[@roisterer6913]

I have to say I was surprised to hear Australian rules football mentioned.

[@timhulio1]

But it is 100% pear. That is, pear flesh - the whitish matter of which pears are constituted - is that not pear? Pears are made of pear. No plural is needed if one were to make cider from the fruit. Why you'd bother is anyone's guess though.

[@LoneKharnivore]

Tim Webster Yeah, that was all I could think for the twenty-five minutes of Stewart Lee's sketch.

[@damianjones4012]

They do look similiar.

[@LoneKharnivore]

It's bizarre, the pear cider sketch is directed at the company and the advert. Not one word is said against Mark Watson.

[@SerendipityChild]

Discrete

[@trevorwhatever5301]

Yeah I used to like Mark Watson,.

[@Nologogo]

Yeah this is a strange one. The routine didn't name him and Lee didn't go after him. He seems to have either not seen it, or missed the point entirely.

[@dislecsyk991]

That's not strictly true, there's a reference made in there about "doing all the accents...English, Welsh, English, Welsh." He does have a couple of subtle digs at Watson. But yeah, anybody that takes anything Lee says personally is completely missing the point.

[@rabid_si]

This entire response reeks of massive insecurity to the point of being unbearably cringey. To the point of literally derailing into countering arguments that were never made in absolutely nonsensical ways. Did this just fester inside his head to the point that he had convinced himself he really was a morally bankrupt sellout for advertising alcohol or something? Because the entire tangent where he claims its impossible to get drunk on Magners pear cider (which literally has an ABV equivalent to drinks people get fall down drunk on every weekend all over the country) is absurd. Like, have some self respect, man. Laugh at yourself and move the fuck on. It wasn't even about you.

[@SkepticalChimp]

Why is there a drought of emergency questions lately?

[@sratus]

+SkepticalChimp cos they're boring and not funny when you hear them for the hundredth time

[@SkepticalChimp]

They're a perfect staple of the show. Even if you find it less riveting than the serious series of questions, it can lead to much more unpredictable, interesting places. The most obvious example being "What's it like to be Stephen Fry?" as a goofy stock segue, and then uncovering the gritty truth.

[@Herring1967]

+sratus people have different tastes with this. Some miss it if I don't do it, some get annoyed if I do, so I tend to trust my own judgement and do them a bit, and then rest or end them when i've had enough. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, but they serve a valuable function of making the guest answer something that they have not answered before, which means, when I go back to less stupid questions they are more open to be imaginative. And also, even the cocksucking one, which I rarely do now, does still lead to funny and different answers even after all this time. And one day when I meet someone who has seen a Bigfoot that question is going to really come into its own too. But as people disagree on repetitive humour/catchphrases etc I think it;s best that I decide when it's ENOUGH! It's easy to fast forward to the next question if you don't like them. There's 90 minutes of stuff in most of these shows.

[@sratus]

Alright Rich, I don't mind the silly emergency questions, I'd just enjoy some different ones is all. I also understand that you're trying to keep a lot of comedy nerds (myself included) happy at the same time with such things which must be annoying. Anyway, it's a really, really cracking show, many thanks.

[@xtraspecialmango]

31:53

[@csurname]

34:04 These days,

[@solipsismworld]

Is the cracked rib thing the reason Key won't do RHLSTP?

[@Herring1967]

No, he was booked in to do the last run at the LST in April 2020, but then something happened. I don't remember what it was.

[@krispyai4229]

Wasn’t the pear cider bit more targeted at the script writer?

[@Herring1967]

Nah

[@billallen2126]

recommend this podcast as course material to a professor of sociology. just saying'.

[@davidholton3571]

You are waaaaaaay better than Russel.Kane

[@Dave062YT]

No normal person would think affecting a Welsh accent is the route to success and I'm Welsh so I should know ...although oddly I have a cockney accent

[@michaeldean8884]

funny

[@JigjagjugXyz]

666 views

[@anonimushbosh]

I used to be a big fan of Stewart Lee but that BBC 2 series ruined it for me. First he continually attacked the viewer for not getting his jokes, which was funny for a while, but only if we played along by pretending he was playing to a BBC1 saturday night audience, and then he spent the next few years regurgitating the same couple of jokes for series after endless series. Perhaps Stewart Lee's next TV outing could be a cruel, prolonged, yet heartfelt attack on the varied failings of Stewart Lee. I'd pay good money to see that!

[@LoneKharnivore]

anonymous bosh You missed the point of those 'not getting the joke' bits, he was mocking his elitist fans.

[@Ceidonianphysicist]

Ironically you proved lee right.

[@anonimushbosh]

Ceidonianphysicist Not really. Unless he suffers from self hatred

[@J1mmyMack]

No one cares about your Magners advert, Mark. Do whatever adverts you like. Lee's routine isn't about you.

[@kisbie]

What Boyle said about him was far worse tbf. Just plain nasty and horrible, and a bizarre line of attack. One of the many reasons why I can never really warm to either Boyle or Lee as people, skilled comedians they both undoubtedly are.

[@philipbeattie290]

At what part does this bore talk about his pear cider advert???