Stand-up comedian Mark Simmons: ‘I failed until I stopped failing as much’
It’s not always a good idea to compare a stand-up to other stand-ups, but watching Mark Simmons on the now-defunct Mock the Week, I have to say that his stunning one-liners (“The quickest quipster in showbusiness,” proclaims the Evening Standard) reminded me somewhat of the equally brilliant Gary Delaney.
“Yeah, I love Gary,” says Mark, who later revealed that he’s set to perform in Australia for the first time next year. “He’s an excellent joke writer but he’s also a really nice man. He gave me lots of advice actually with different aspects of the comedy industry, so I’ve got a lot of time for Gary. He did an episode of my podcast [Jokes with Mark Simmons] as well, which people generally say is their favourite one so yeah, he’s great.”
Mark is coming to Cambridge, as part of his Quip off the Mark tour, on November 6. The tour comes after a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe, where he was awarded runner-up in Dave’s Joke of the Fringe Award.
To further highlight his growing popularity, Mark’s gig at the Junction was upgraded twice from the smaller J3 venue (100 capacity) to the standard J2 capacity (220), and then finally to the J2’s full capacity of 300, where extra chairs are added in and the stage is set further back.
He certainly has an uncanny ability to make people laugh but where did this come from? “I think I’ve always been fairly quick-witted,” suggests Mark, whose podcast has also featured the likes of Rob Beckett, Milton Jones, and Seann Walsh. “I’ve got an older brother who’s quite witty so I always sort of had to compete with him, so I think that helped.
“But as far as doing stand-up... it was never really a consideration because when I was at school and at university I really didn’t like standing up and presenting in front of people – so although I really liked stand-up, it wasn’t even a thought that crossed my mind. I didn’t think I’d be able to stand in front of people and do it.
“But when I finished university, I started working in a gym, just briefly, and a friend of a friend was training in there and he’d been doing the open-mic circuit in London. I don’t know how he managed it but he convinced me to have a go.
“There was a club called Downstairs at the King’s Head in London. You pre-book months in advance but there’s also an option that you can stand by the door and if anyone drops out you can get on. So he told me just to come down and do that and he basically gave me a week to write five minutes of material, which I now know is not long enough!
“When I did it, I don’t think it went well, but when I got a laugh that filled me with confidence and I was like, ‘Oh, I can do this’. I like talking in front of people if there’s a reaction, I don’t like talking in front of people if they’re just staring. So yes, I caught the bug and I haven’t stopped since.”
Mark says that these first forays into stand-up happened in around 2008 when he was about 23 years old. Since then, the now 37-year-old has become one of the highest gag-rate comics in the country, with numerous TV and radio appearances including Mock the Week, DIY Pundit, and Fred at the Stand, while also racking up 165,000 followers on Tik Tok, 35,000 followers on Instagram, and 77,000 followers on Facebook.
“I really didn’t know what I was doing,” he admits, reflecting on those early years, “so it took quite a long time for me to work out what I was on stage. I tried different styles and it took a while, because some people will do a course which I now look at and think, ‘I really should have done a course’.
“I don’t know why I didn’t but I went in at the deep end and just kept failing until I stopped failing quite as much and gradually got better.”
On the subject of his comedy influences, Mark recalls: “I think probably, looking back, the biggest influence now – because I remember it really well – was Jimmy Carr’s first ever Royal Variety Performance. I remember where I was sitting, I remember where my brother was sitting, and we just found it so funny.
[Read more: Comedian Gary Delaney: ‘Laugh a minute? That means 80 per cent of my jokes have failed’, Comedian Jordan Brookes: ‘My plants are not a fan of Slipknot’]
“It was the first time that I’d seen one-liners where you’d have to think about it to get it. And the satisfaction you’d get from working it out, I loved it. I don’t know how old I was – I guess 14, 15, maybe even younger, I don’t know, but I vividly remember seeing that and how much I liked it.
“Also, I remember in sixth form, Lee Evans’ live from Wembley [Wired and Wonderful – Live at Wembley]. Some of the other kids had a DVD of it and they’d play it on a laptop, and they’d be playing it nearly every day and everyone was impersonating him, so then that also got me interested in stand-up.”
Mark Simmons will be appearing at the Junction’s J2 on Sunday, November 6. For tickets, priced £15.50 (£13.50 concs), visit junction.co.uk. For more on Mark, go to marksimmons.co.uk.