EDINBURGH 2023: Mark Nelson Interview

BWW catches up with comedian Mark Nelson to chat about bringing Bits & Pieces to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Give me a summary of Bits & Pieces.

Well, I thought it was my tenth year but it turns out its actually my eleventh Fringe but I'll still play up to it as my tenth. The last two years I've written two very topical shows which was quite taxing so I decided this year I was just going to enjoy it. My initial plan was to try and do a greatest hits but then stuff has happened in the news and I can't resist so I have written largely a new show. I had various ideas for a new show and at one point I was going to do a song.

When researching you last night I did find out that you used to front a band.

I did! Called Evac Chair. I thought it would have been more indie/Brit-pop stuff but looking back we more like a type of Green Day band. We did a cover of Rage Against the Machine. So yeah I was going to do a song but I have now drastically turned down the idea.

This is why I like that its called Bits & Pieces because it can be different every night. Depending on what stuff comes up in the news between then and now I'll see what I come up with. I've got lots about Las Vegas, I went there for a stag do.

Do you think eleven years in that you've got the Fringe sussed by now?

No.

I don't think anyone will ever suss the Fringe.

Moving to do the Monkey Barrel model of people paying what they want, I enjoyed last year a whole lot more. It felt like the pressure was off me and off the audience and everyone was able to just enjoy themselves. I thought I would hate the whole bit at the end saying about how if you got in for free I'd be standing at the back with the donation bucket but I actually really enjoyed that. I always kept myself kind of guarded from the audience which is why I dreaded it but that turned out to be the most enjoyable part of the Fringe. It's actually quite nice speaking to people.

I think we comedians think so much of ourselves that you can forget that people are just out to have a good night and be entertained. You get into your head that this has to be perfect and life-changing for them. But then you realise that they just want to laugh and have a nice time!

Any thoughts on how to improve the festival?

Nothing groundbreaking but the accommodation needs sorted out. I was speaking to a brilliant comic who was coming and doing free fringe but now can't come because he can't afford it. Most folk can't fork out three grand for a flat for a month. Its very very restrictive in that way. If that isn't tackled I think the Fringe will implode a bit.

I'm amazed that a lot of acts that don't live in the Central Belt of Scotland can do it. I commute every day. I treat the Fringe like a job and I'll stay over if I've got late-night stuff on. It's nice because you don't have the cost or the temptation to go out and you escape that bubble where you don't really know what else is going on in the world. You come back to Glasgow and nobody gives a f**k that the Fringe is on, keeps you grounded. 

In another job when I first started comedy, people that I used to work with asked me how you get into the Fringe. "Do you just buy tickets when you get into Edinburgh?". It's not like Jurassic Park. There's not like a big gate, that's not what the Hermiston Gait is where you pay and get into all the shows. It wasn't them being daft, it was purely that folk over here (Glasgow) knew the Fringe was happening but not really what it was. 

I think the Fringe has become this money-making rollercoaster that forgets its audiences. The first post-Covid year was lovely.

Ah, the weird year.

Aye the weird year. Where everyone only did a few shows. It was dead fun. I really enjoyed that Fringe.

What are the advantages to performing at Monkey Barrel?

The audiences are great and its got such a good name now. It's the place to be at the Fringe. It's not that other rooms I have done haven't been easy to work with but Monkey Barrel do a nice thing where they're very hands off but they're there if you do need them. Last year was the first year I did it without an agent as well which was daunting. I had to hire flyers and I've never hired anyone or been the boss of anyone before.

Its nice to be associated with the venue that keeps getting acts that are nominated for awards. They're also very fair and loyal to acts that have been with them from the start. I think that it helps that they're taking over different rooms as well. Even when they had just the two venues and not enough space for anyone that wanted to do it and then they got The Hive and this year they've got The Tron too. 

Who is your audience?

Sometimes it'll surprise me. My favourite thing last Fringe was one of the guys that worked at the bar in The Hive told me that I was the only show in the building where every single audience member has bought a drink. I'm genuinely quite proud of that. So that's my audience, alcoholics.

It'll mostly be folk my age. There was a Fringe I got an incredible amount of older people, 60+. It was bizarre because it was when I was younger as well but I had a huge following with older people. I went on Nicholas Parsons chat show early on and after that I just kept seeing tonnes of them. And they're still coming. There's a group of four that come every year and one of them is in her 80s. I don't know what I'm saying that's attracting them! 

In the age of Tiktok do you feel pressure to have shareable online content?

Yes I think its a massive pressure. I think some people are very good at it and can see it as this opportunity where anyone can put stuff out and become successful off their own back and I think that's amazing. But I am one of these people who feels a lot of pressure. It's not jealousy or envy but its a self-doubt thing where you start to wonder if stuff isn't happening for you because you're not putting this work out. It's impossible to put out a clip of quality every day. 

So you start seeing folk put out general pish. And I catch myself nearly doing it and going "this isn't good, you're putting this out just to have a video out today". It's like all social media, you're seeing a bombardment of people putting stuff out there and wondering if you should be too. I felt it in lockdown too, everyone was doing Twitch stuff. 

I think it is getting oversaturated with the clips now. People must be going "I literally can't open my phone anymore without seeing a clip of somebody speaking to an audience member about something". 

Are you conscious when you're writing or gigging that you need to get a one-liner or really punchy quick bit that could go viral?

No, I went through a period where I was. Again I think that with comedy if you get in at the right time you can massively capitalise on something. About eight months ago if you put something up loads of things were going viral whereas I think now very little does. At that point, not everyone was doing it. It's good to learn skills for filming stuff and editing but you become quite obsessed with it. I was finding myself tailoring sets to the camera. You're almost manufacturing stuff for a later audience. I don't think it was noticeable at the gig but I was noticing it and I was finding myself disappointed if something hadn't happened. It annoys comperes massively with people coming on and re-compering the room and not doing it as well and doing it purely to get an audience reaction clip. 

I don't do it anymore at all but if there's something quite topical I will write about it and it's beneficial for me to do that and if it does come out as a clip I'm not that bothered if it doesn't go viral.

Do you think the target audience for these clips will translate well to live audience members?

No, not at all. 

Well, I think some of them will. I think there will be a group of people who only ever see clips and are blown away that can be maintained for an hour. And then there will be another half of them that will go "this is shite, this is too long, just get to the joke". 

There was a period when there was a Live At The Apollo audience that were coming to shows. They were seeing the best acts in an incredibly polished edited set of 12 minutes that was filmed well with audience laugh tracks put in. Then they were coming to live shows and they were confused as to why it wasn't as slick as it is in this incredibly well-produced tv show.

I think some definitely will be introduced to stand up from it. It depends how much they're into comedy anyway. Podcasts is where you'll get most of your audience.

How do you feel about online comments vs live heckles?

I've never bothered about heckles onstage because I can deal with them in the moment. I quite like them. It doesn't happen as often as people who don't do standup or haven't been to standup would imagine. 

So the online stuff affects you more?

It doesn't upset me but it does frustrate me. I can't retort to it. It frustrates me more when people are hypocritical about stuff. I've had people that have liked a joke that I've put online and then I've done another joke and its the most offensive thing they've ever heard.

What annoys me the most about online comments is that its so easy to just get on with stuff. I don't understand why someone would take the time to tell you how much they hate you. I find it bizarre. There's a lot of stuff I don't like and I've been to see films I didn't enjoy but I didn't go home to tweet the director about how pish it was. With comedy, there's a weird thing where people feel more inclined to get more upset and angry with us. I don't see it as much with musicians. 

The worst one is "you can't be that good, I've never heard of you" because it's almost impossible to come up with a response to that. 

How does your daughter feel about the comedy videos you used to put out when she was a toddler?

She doesn't really have much of an opinion on it! It was so long ago and she's so different now. Every now and again a wee pal in school will say their mum showed them it. She's not embarrassed at all or anything but that might change when she becomes a teenager. At the moment she thinks its still a pretty cool thing to have done.

Tell me a bit about your podcast.

I've technically got two. It was going really well and I was really enjoying it. The lack of time to do anything took over but I've got four sitting waiting to be edited. It's called My Perfect Playlist where I get mostly comedians but other people as well and I give them a set list of different topics of songs and ask them to put together a playlist. Hilarity ensues.

I've just started one with Ryan Cullen called Absolute Cuts and its a film based podcast. I love in-depth nerdy film podcasts but I didn't want to do that. The idea was that we find a DVD in a charity shop and it can't be more than £1 but we talk about that. The film is just a jumping-off point to see wherever it goes. There's been a couple of times where I've stood on for Daniel on him and Kai's podcast when he's been on tour and I'm amazed that podcasts that have such a longevity that's just two folk talking. But I always need some kind of structure. 

What's next for you after the Fringe?

A tour!

A big tour!

Yes. I've put it off for years due to insecurity but I'm really looking forward to it. When I first put out asking where I should go, the response was incredible. I've stuck to the main places. I'm very much looking forward to the ones in Ireland and Liverpool but I'm looking forward to all of them. The King's in Glasgow is going to be good fun. I'd wanted to do it for ages but because it's such a big space it takes a lot longer to negotiate but it's going to be a lot of fun.

Tickets for Bits & Pieces at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe are available here 

Tickets for Mark Nelson's tour are available here

Poster design: Alexis Dubus

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