REVIEW: Mark Simmons at The Leadmill

BEING a journalist means I, of course, love words,

It also means I love puns – one of the highlights of my job is lobbing a bit of word play into a light-hearted story.

So it's no surprise comedian Mark Simmons (“The quickest quipster in showbusiness,” according to the Evening Standard) had me and the rest of a pretty much sold out Leadmill laughing throughout a set jammed with pun-tastic punchlines.

There were quick-witted quips, slow-burners and some gags that the comic himself described as “thinkers” - cue a perfectly timed “ohhhh” from a woman in the audience as the punny penny dropped and she got the joke.

The one-liners come thick and fast, but there are also more intricate gags which are neatly set up and deftly returned to some half an hour or more later.

The wordplay is wonderful – there are even a few puns that provoke a groan or two.

Many jokes involve everyday phrases delivered with a twist (“My mate's a maths geek. He said I was 'average'. I said 'mean'...he used to be as nice as 3.14159265359.”)

I have been a fan of Mark's since seeing him support Seann Walsh many years ago and speaking of support acts, Joey Page did a superb job of opening.

I loved his announcement that he had created – and moved into – a new social class.

“It's called 'upper working class'. It means you buy avocados but you scan them through the self-service till as a big onion.”