Ten shows by comedians called Mark

Ten shows by comedians called Mark. Simple as that.

1. Mark Watson

Always one of – if not the – most prolific comedians on the Fringe, Watson has at least three projects at this year’s festival… as well as co-running the production company Impatient which is presenting a slate of shows. His main stand-up offering, Search, is - ambitiously- about the search for meaning that we’re al on and will embark on a UK tour after its run at the Pleasance Courtyard (21:00). He’s also performing live, feature-length version of the cult interactive game The Company, which is usually run online on Discord and that was born at the slimmed-down Fringe two years ago, when so many people were still at home. He’s staging this at St Peter’s Church at 6pm on August 21, the day before he takes over the venue for Churchfest, a day of unusual old-school Fringe activities’.

2. Mark Silcox

The epitome of the room-splitting comedian. On TV he steals scenes in the likes of Man Like Mobeen and Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back. Live, he performs wilfully low-key hours of anti-comedy, dryly setting out a philosophy with no gags. Some people find it hilarious, others infuriating, yet he sticks to his guns. After presenting versions of the same show I Can Cure… every Fringe since 2017, he now has a new show, Women Only, in which he offers an official apology ‘on behalf of weak men to women for all the historical misconducts’. He’s also performing a double act with Luke McQueen in the last week of the festival (Just The Tonic at The Tron, 20:40) as a father and son trying to create a hit song.

PBH’s Free Fringe @ Voodoo Rooms, 4.30pm

3. Mark Thomas

Last week we told how the veteran leftie troublemaker was doing the first Fringe show he hadn’t written himself. But he’s also back in the second half of the festival with the mischievous stand-up he’s known for, under the title Gaffa Tapes. ‘I rant, tell jokes, sing some songs, swear a lot and urge the audience to join the comedic equivalent of the Red Army Faction,’ he says. ‘Basically, don’t come if you’re a Tory unless you actually want to be a hostage.'

 Stand 1, 22:15 from August 13.

4. Mark Dean Quinn

Fans of weird cult comedy at the Fringe might know Mark Dean Quinn from Consignia, the late-night offering that makes no effort to make the audience like them – or often understand what’s going on. Last year he performed a stand-up about having a stroke, and this year… well, the blurb gives nothing away and he’s performing at the probably the least sought-after slot at the Fringe. Could be anything…

PBH’s Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth, 01:50

5. Markus Birdman

The circuit stalwart also performed a stand-up show last year about having a stroke – full of gags and zero pathos (read our review here). Now – having wowed Britain’s Got Talent with just a slither of that material – he returns to the subject, specifically the platinum heart he ended up with. ‘I’ve made this in the most heartfelt and funny way I can,’ he said. ‘I’ve never believed in anything more’

Edge Festival @ The Liquid Room to August 20 only

6. Mark Nelson

The Dumfries-born comic – who won the first Scottish Comedian of the Year Award when he was just a newbie way back in 2006 – has been presenting shows at the Fringe since 2010 and is a regular on BBC Scotland, not least with the viral hit News At 3, featuring his young daughter. This year the veteran, known for his dark sense of humour, presents a mix of new material and greatest hits from all those years.

Monkey Barrel Comedy (The Hive), 19:05

7. Mark Simmons

The Mock The Week regular breaks out of his UK tour to try out some more of his one-liners in a show called simply New Jokes. 

Liquid Room Annexe 13:45

8. Mark Vigeant 

The New York comic brings his high-energy show about being a people-pleaser – Mark Pleases You – to Edinburgh after a stunt at the Hollywood Fringe where it won a ‘Best of Broadwater award’. No idea what that means, but he got a couple of rave audience reviews for his ‘fireball performance’. And he says: ‘In order to reckon with my past, I go face-to-face with my 12-year-old self in a breakneck-paced time-traveling comedy show that is tightly choreographed and joyfully vulnerable.’

 C Aquila, 18:35

9. Mark Bittlestone

The comedian, who took part in the BBC New Comedy Awards in 2022, also describes himself as a gay influencer with a sizeable social media following – ‘if that sort of thing interests you, which it shouldn’t" his blurb reads. His 45-minute show, Poofs "R" Us, is an exploration of his sexuality. 

Laughing Horse @ Eastside, 18:55, to August 19th only

10. Mark Row 

In 2016, Mark Row gave himself a year to go from having never performed stand-up to doing a full run at the Edinburgh Fringe. He made a documentary about it, and garnered just one two-star review. Now – after surely realising what a bad idea that was – he’s back with a new show, A* in the Making, about his past life as a teacher, with ‘the endless carousel of uninspiring lessons and the attitudes of kids that stinks worse than their PE kits’.

Laughing Horse @ The Hanover Tap, 12:00

Published: 18 Jul 2023