Comedian To Tell Jokes For 33 Hours

Comedian Mark Watson is set to enter the section of the Guiness Book Of Records marked ‘Pointless and Tedious’ when he attempts to remain on stage for a 2,005 minute routine at this year’s Edinburgh Festival.

2005, you may have guessed, is this year. And Watson wants to celebrate it by telling one minute’s worth of material for every year that has passed. Added up, he’ll be on stage for more than 33 hours. And you thought Jimmy Carr was around too much.

Apart from the enormous length of time that Mark will be on stage for, his act will be difficult. A minute’s worth of material for each year, remember.

Let’s take a year at random. The year AD 586. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in that year. Can anyone think of a good, minute long joke about that? It was also the year that ended of the reign of the West Gothic king, Leovigild. Anyone? No?

There are other concerns. You see, it’s not really going to be scripted as such. And Watson’s talking about talking a nap halfway through.

Putting our negative thoughts aside, it might be a good show. Mark Watson won the 2002 Open Mic award, so that’s some sign of quality. We hope.

The show begins on August 15th at The Dome at The Pleasance. Despite out misgivings, hecklerspray really wants to see this, so someone send us an invite.

[Story by Stuart Heritage]