Need-to-know basis
What happened to the accent?
When I started out, Lottie (who asked the question), I adopted an accent to get away from the self-consciousness of being a comedian; otherwise I’d never have had the guts to do it. My family’s pretty Welsh so it was easy and not even much of a lie. Specifically though, it was inspired by Gruff Rhys, lead singer of the Super Furry Animals, who have never been out of my top three bands since 1996 (and whose extraordinary showmanship influences everything I do on a stage).
It went well and I became known as ‘Welsh comedian Mark Watson’. That was cool for a while.
Eventually, though, I thought ‘this is stupid’. I was doing TV and radio stuff without my accent, then appearing on stage with it. More and more, people didn’t realise it was the same person. Either the accent had to go or I had to use it forever. Obviously, it had to go. Now it’s sort of gone. Sort of.
On Time Trumpet, did you write it in advance or was it scripted?
Time Trumpet is a little-remembered but rather good show created by Armando Iannucci, which I was lucky enough to be in when I had almost never been on TV before. It was a sort of spoof talking-heads show (at a time when nearly everything on TV was a talking-heads show) set in the future. The answer to the question is, actually, we pretty much ad-libbed all the studio bits, with Armando asking questions to prompt us. It was a great experience.
When will you do another series of the radio show, Mark Watson Makes The etc?
There’s talk of doing it on TV. But it will never happen. So, I’ll do another radio series next year. Thanks for asking.
Did you always want to be a comedian when you were at university? I am an English student.
As I’ve said before in this blog, I didn’t have much of a clue, for the whole time I was at university, of what would lie beyond it. I was keen on writing and I’d tried my hand at comedy a little bit but I couldn’t see either thing adding up to a career. I still sometimes ask myself if this is really happening, and one of the purposes of the blog is to reassure myself that it is.
So, as I’ve remarked often enough, you should definitely not worry about the fact you don’t know what you’re going to do when uni finishes. If you get to 40 and you still haven’t worked it out, maybe it’s time to worry a bit.
As for what you said about how you sometimes wish English – although fascinating – were more ‘vocational’: every English student ever has had that wish. But the fact is, like any arts degree, it is equipping you to make judgements, read things critically, appreciate the world around you, and be creative. I don’t want to sound wanky about this (I had a LOT of reservations about my own English course, and I was at a good university) and I also don’t want to make out that reading a poem is somehow as good as knowing how to operate on a patient. Without doubt, English is less useful in many real-life situations than Medicine. But don’t underestimate what it can do you for as a person. And hey. You can always become a teacher. That’s what most of them do.
There are a couple of outstanding questions, but they’re either good enough to warrant a blog of their own, or I’ve forgotten them. Or both. Feel free to keep asking things over and over again because I sure do forget things a lot.
Posted by Calum on August 8, 2010
I’ve got about nine months.
Posted by Rachael on July 20, 2010
It’s a relief to know I dont have to worry til i’m 40, i’ve got some time left yet then.
Posted by Juliet on July 18, 2010
I was listening to one of the episodes of the Vote Now Show yesterday, and that was when I realized your accent has really changed… comparing to Mark Watson Makes The World Substantially Better. I’m the Argentinian girl, so maybe that’s the reason why I’m the last to know.
You’re the best though, no matter the accent.
Posted by Marbles on July 17, 2010
Biscuinaut!! That’s brilliant
Posted by Custard_Cream_Dreams on July 17, 2010
As a man in a stop-gap job who earns money putting biscuits on shelves, orders them and has them in his bloody handle, I feel compelled as an professional amateur biscuiteer (biscuinaut?) to ask for your favourite biscuit! Personally I like a jammie dodger, though of course my favourite is custard creams. In fact I have a theory that no matter how much you pay for a custard cream, they’re all the same (and all good). It’s a universal constant, even though they taste more of vanilla.
Anyway, I should sign off. Or bis-quit, as we say.
Posted by Heather on July 17, 2010
Ooh, Time Trumpet sounds quite interesting! Must see if I can find a way to watch it…
And I asked a question a while ago which I don’t think you answered, about the time you spent in Canada. How long did you live there? Where did you live? General thoughts on the place, et cedra. And a few addendums that have occurred to me since: Have you ever lived anywhere else outside the UK for a significant period? Is there anywhere you’d like to live that you haven’t yet?
Posted by Rachel Winter on July 17, 2010
Erm – have I missed much?
Must apologise, haven’t been able to read the blog for almost 4 weeks.
I do hope nothing exciting happened?
Should I be thinking of a question? My mind always goes blank when i actually get the chance to ask someone i admire a question.
Posted by (Magnificent) Josh on July 16, 2010
I LOVED TIME TRUMPET
Celebrity Rape an Ape, Tesco’s World Domination, Plastic Surgery Centaurs, I never even realised you were on it (although looking back I remember your voice singing a theme tune). Is there any way of seeing it these days?
Posted by Juliet on July 16, 2010
I’m thinking about studying Literature… I still don’t know what to do (I’m 17). I’ve always loved books and writing, and teaching sounds like a good idea to me, but I’m just not sure. I wanted to know, how did you realize you wanted to study English? Your experience may help!
Posted by MusicalLottie on July 16, 2010
Ooh yikes, that’s twice this week I’ve been mentioned in your blog *runs to hide*
Thank you for answering my question; I’m glad that it wasn’t your ‘native’ accent and for some reason you’d dropped it. Your Bristolian accent is fairly distinctive anyway (you may not think so but those vowels are unmistakable) … I’m not sure the point I wanted to make there. You have a pleasant accent anyway.
Posted by Madeleine on July 16, 2010
Yes, I once had a heated argument with my friend about whether you were Welsh or not (“I’VE SEEN TORCHWOOD ALRIGHT, I KNOW WHAT WELSH IS!”). I mistakenly thought you were, having seen you live recently and then had to embarrassingly admit to her later that I was wrong (which was agony for me).
Couple of little questions, and I want to second Lydia’s request for book suggestions. I go to the library often, but I seem to always get the same kind off stuff.
1. What television show/book/movie/album do you wish you’d written?
2. What was your favourite TV show as a kid/ teenager. I think people your age in England grew up with the best TV.
Lucky bastards, tonight I watched 3 straight episodes of CSI.
(predictable, yes, and if they’ve been asked before don’t worry about answering again)
Posted by Sam on July 16, 2010
I’ve a question for you Mark: what’s your favourite colour?
Sorry, not my real question. I’ve just always got the urge to ask that at any Q&A event I’ve ever attended, when people are generally asking all sorts of serious, intiutive, probing questions
My real question is: what is the one thing that you’ve read/heard/saw/experienced that’s inspired you the most in life and in what way did it inspire you?
thanks x
Posted by Lydia on July 16, 2010
That’s really interesting about the English course. I want to do literature with creative writing if I get into uni, but I am really scared of all the genius people.
Do you have any book recommendations for us?
Posted by Someone on July 16, 2010
Yo yo! Maybe [get someone to] update your FAQ bit with them questions you did for that FAQ blog near the beginning of this … blogathon majigga… so y’know, life won’t be repeated for you for ever and ever like. Failsafe.
And I’ll make things worse by adding more questions :] like do a list of favourite books? (You might have already done that though ‘coz I have a vague recollection, but I think that was bands. I could check… I could. But I’m that lazy.) And my other one was where do your novel ideas come from? As in… well both… I give up.
Posted by Misha on July 16, 2010
Oh Time Trumpet, I loved that (before I was aware of you) the Tesco’s clip was actually played in our general studies lesson to demonstrate a point, but i’ll be honest I was less interested in the point it was supposed to be making about capitalism. Not that I ever really listened in General Studies, which is why it’s the only subject i’ve ever failed. I digress.
My question was dull. It was, do you have specific clothes set aside for gigging? Or not? Like I don’t have to wear a uniform, but I have certain, more sensible things I wear to work, and more outlandish crap I save for the weekends. (namely a pair of fuschia pink foil leggings, not that i’m suggesting you wear pink leggings at weekends.)
Posted by DeborahF on July 16, 2010
Ahem – what happened to the optimism TYSIC?
There’s talk of doing it on TV. But it will “NEVER” happen. So, I’ll do another radio series next year. Thanks for asking.
Never – that’s are really negative statement to make for someone trying to be an optimist