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Mark Watson’s ‘This Can’t Be It’ tour continues in 2022

Entertainment

Mark Watson’s ‘This Can’t Be It’ tour continues in 2022

Neurotic, multi-award winning comedian, author and Taskmaster survivor Mark Watson is back on tour…

The events of the past twelve-and-a-bit months, to give them a politely evasive name, have made us all think more regularly about the fragility of life than we probably would have liked to. Nothing focuses the mind than having a ‘daily death toll’ with your late afternoon glass of wine, or a tired-looking government scientist showing graphs and using phrases like ‘we anticipate many, many more fatalities’ in what used to be the ‘Escape To The Country’ slot.

But luckily, Mark Watson has been stressing about the frightening prospect of death since before it became fashionable. His intended 2020 show – on the cusp of going to Melbourne and Edinburgh festivals, before a typically extensive nationwide tour – was inspired by taking a life expectancy test (there’s an app you can get, if you’re having an existential crisis at 3am) and discovering he could expect to reach 78: in other words, he’s just over halfway to, as it were, the finish line.

What should we be doing with our time on earth, and how can we do it better? Watson has made a lot of strides towards happiness and fulfilment over the past few years. But there’s one problem left: and it really is a big one. The popular but all-too-mortal Radio 4 figure, star of ‘Live At The Apollo’ and House Of Games’ (which he won, but it’s not all about that) wrestles with some of the fundamental questions of life, with unusually high levels of benign audience involvement and the gag rate of an already fast-talking comedian who’s been imprisoned his house for more than a year.

This show has been some time in the making, thanks to all that unpleasantness with the virus. He’s rarely looked forward to anything in his life. All those 41 years of it to date.

Mark Watson had a pretty lively lockdown, as they go. With Tim Key and Alex Horne, he created the game ‘No More Jockeys’ which has now had more than 2 million YouTube views and found a rabid cult audience. He published his most critically acclaimed book to date, ‘Contacts’, and wrote another, non-fiction, title for release this year. He pioneered the Drive And Dine series of outdoor comedy gigs at the depth of the pandemic, and his company, Impatient, were one of the only ones to offer ‘tour shows’ run through Zoom calls, entertaining thousands of ticket-buyers deprived of other live comedy.

He also completed a trilogy of 24-hour online shows, raising around £70,000 for charities. In March he curated the only overseas shows to be part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival, as part of their digital programme. For all this, he was one of the winners of Chortle’s Legends Of Lockdown awards, recognising comics who had gone above and beyond to entertain in these extreme times.

2022 Tour Dates

JANUARY

Thursday 20th         The Mill Arts Centre,               0129 5279 002        www.themillartscentre.co.uk

Banbury

Friday 21st            Artsdepot, North Finchley,     020 8369 5454      artsdepot.co.uk

London

Saturday 22nd        Bilston Town Hall, Bilston      01902 497222       ents24.com/bilston-events/bilston-town-hall

Sunday 23rd          Foxlowe Arts Centre, Leek     01538 386112       foxloweartscentre.org.uk

Thursday 27th        Cheltenham Town Hall,         01242 850270       cheltenhamfestivals.com

Cheltenham

Friday 28th            The Stables, Milton Keynes    01908 280800       stables.org

Friday 29th            The Brewhouse,                 01283 508100       brewhouse.co.uk

Burton-Upon-Trent

Sunday 30th          Theatr Clwyd, Mold             01352 344101       theatrclwyd.com

 

FEBRUARY

Thursday 3rd         Reading Town Hall, Reading   0118 937 3400       readingtownhall.co.uk

Friday 4th                The Maltings, Farnham           01252745444          farnhammaltings.com

Saturday 5th          Tobacco Factory, Bristol        0117 902 0060      tobaccofactory.com

Sunday 6th            The Y Theatre, Leicester       0116 255 7066      leicesterymca.co.uk/theatre/

Wednesday 9th       Unity Theatre, Liverpool        0151 709 4988      unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk

Thursday 10th        The Witham, Barnard Castle   01833 631107       thewitham.org.uk

Friday 11th            Otley Courthouse, Otley        01943 467466       otleycourthouse.org.uk

Saturday 12th         Pocklington Arts Centre,        01759 301 547      pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk

York

Wednesday 16th     Electric Palace, Bridport        01308 424 901       electricpalace.org.uk

Thursday 17th        Shanklin Theatre, Isle of       01983 868000       shanklintheatre.com

Wight

Friday 18th            The Brewhouse Theatre &     01823 283 244      thebrewhouse.net

Arts Centre, Taunton

Saturday 19th         The Watermark, Ivybridge     01752 892220       ivybridgewatermark.co.uk

Friday 25th            The Hazlitt, Maidstone          01622 758611       parkwoodtheatres.co.uk/Hazlitt-Theatre

Saturday 26th         The Corn Hall, Diss              01379 652241       thecornhall.co.uk

MARCH

Thursday 3rd         The Astor Theatre, Deal        01304 370220       theastor.co.uk

Friday 4th             The Hawth, Crawley            01293 553636       parkwoodtheatres.co.uk/The-Hawth

Saturday 5th          The Lights, Andover             01264 368368       thelights.org.uk

Sunday 5th            Huntingdon Hall, Worcester    01905 611 427      worcestertheatres.co.uk

MAY

Thursday 5th          Wyeside Arts Centre,           01982 552555       wyeside.co.uk

Builth Wells

Friday 6th                The North Wall Arts Centre     01865319450         www.thenorthwall.com

Oxford

Friday 13th            Loughborough Town Hall,      01509 231914       loughboroughtownhall.co.uk

Loughborough

Saturday 14th         Lincoln Performing Arts         01522 837600       lpac.co.uk

Centre, Lincoln

Sunday 15th          The Old Rep Theatre,           0121 359 9444      oldreptheatre.co.uk

Birmingham

Thursday 19th        Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne      01202 885566       tivoliwimborne.co.uk

Friday 20th            McMillan Theatre, Bridgwater  01278 556677       mcmillantheatre.com

Saturday 21st         Tiverton Community Arts       07443 502523       tivertontheatre.com

Theatre

Sunday 22nd          Pavilions Teignmouth,          01626 249049       pavilionsteignmouth.org.uk

Teignmouth

 

JUNE

Wednesday 1st       Plowright Theatre,              0844 844 0444      scunthorpetheatres.co.uk

Scunthorpe

Thursday 2nd         Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal   01539 725133       breweryarts.co.uk

Friday 3rd             The Atkinson, Southport        01704 533333       theatkinson.co.uk

Saturday 4th          Derby Theatre, Derby           01332 593939       derbytheatre.co.uk

Saturday 5th            City Varieties Music Hall,       0113 243 0808      leedsheritagetheatres.com/city-varieties-music-hall/

Leeds

Friday 10th            The Kenton Theatre,            01491 525050       kentontheatre.co.uk

Henley-on-Thames

Saturday 11th         Colchester Arts Centre,         01206 500900       colchesterartscentre.com

Colchester

Friday 24th            Kettering Arts Centre,          01536 513858       ketteringartscentre.com

Kettering

Saturday 25th         The Pyramid Arts Centre,      01925 442345       pyramid.culturewarrington.org

Warrington

Sunday 26th            South Hill Park Arts Centre      01344 484123        www.southhillpark.org.uk

& Wilde Theatre, Bracknell

JULY

Friday 15th            Gloucester Guildhall,            01452 503050       gloucesterguildhall.co.uk

Gloucester

Saturday 16th         Pontardawe Arts Centre,       01792 863722       npttheatres.co.uk/pontardawe/

Pontardawe

Sunday 17th          Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan      01239 621200       mwldan.co.uk

Tuesday 19th         Epsom Playhouse, Epsom      01372 742555       epsomplayhouse.co.uk

Wednesday 20th     The Theatre, Chipping Norton 01608 642350       chippingnortontheatre.com  ON SALE JANUARY 2022

Thursday 21st        The Place, Telford               01952 382 382      theplacetelford.com

Saturday 23rd        Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen       01224 592755       thetivolitheatre.com

Sunday 24th          Theatre Royal Dumfries,       01387 254209       theatreroyaldumfries.co.uk

Dumfries

Saturday 30th         The Point, Eastleigh             023 8065 2333      thepointeastleigh.co.uk

Sunday 31st           The Corn Exchange, Exeter    01392 665938       exetercornexchange.co.uk

SEPTEMBER          

Thursday 15th          King’s Hall & Winter Garden,   01274432000          www.bradford-theatres.co.uk/venues/kings-hall-ilkley        

Ilkley  

OCTOBER              

7TH October            Helmsley Art Centre                01439771700         helmsleyarts.co.uk

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