March 29, 2009
It's really nice to see Mark Steel in the flesh, after years of Radio 4. I hadn't realised he was such a good mimic, nor that he can be physically funny, nor how sweetly he researches the location of his gigs. He's more spontaneous, and although we were terribly well behaved and didn't heckle, at least we didn't get up on stage and sing in cuban either.
There's no doubt he's funny, but it's hard to explain to non-devotees. Essentially he rants about the state of the modern world, and tells anecdotes about people he's met, and just builds up and gathers speed until everyone's convulsed with laughter. As well as socialism, politics, climate change and more serious topics he also touched on his own family, and the breakdown of his marriage. Pretty bleak themes, but down to earth and honest, and pushed to their logical conclusion the stupidities of daily life mostly become funny.
He doesn't really go in for playing with his audience, though I think hecklers would get pretty short shrift. But when someone knocked a glass down from the upper gallery nearly landing it in my lap he broke off long enough to fix the perpetrator with a beady eye, call them a vicious bastard and carry right on with his thread.
A converted swimming pool in North Oxford may not be Steel's natural habitat, but he dispensed with his mic and made the setting feel even more intimate than it already is. In fact he just comes across as a nice, sane, really funny bloke, and at times it felt so like a natter in a pub that I was worried I was going to join in!
Two things would make the world better - either Steel should come back soon, or he should become Prime Minister. Or possibly both. And if you had the misfortune to miss his appearance here there are plenty of tour dates left. Just don't bring the socialist choir.
There's no doubt he's funny, but it's hard to explain to non-devotees. Essentially he rants about the state of the modern world, and tells anecdotes about people he's met, and just builds up and gathers speed until everyone's convulsed with laughter. As well as socialism, politics, climate change and more serious topics he also touched on his own family, and the breakdown of his marriage. Pretty bleak themes, but down to earth and honest, and pushed to their logical conclusion the stupidities of daily life mostly become funny.
He doesn't really go in for playing with his audience, though I think hecklers would get pretty short shrift. But when someone knocked a glass down from the upper gallery nearly landing it in my lap he broke off long enough to fix the perpetrator with a beady eye, call them a vicious bastard and carry right on with his thread.
A converted swimming pool in North Oxford may not be Steel's natural habitat, but he dispensed with his mic and made the setting feel even more intimate than it already is. In fact he just comes across as a nice, sane, really funny bloke, and at times it felt so like a natter in a pub that I was worried I was going to join in!
Two things would make the world better - either Steel should come back soon, or he should become Prime Minister. Or possibly both. And if you had the misfortune to miss his appearance here there are plenty of tour dates left. Just don't bring the socialist choir.