Yesterday I went to see the Edinburgh previews at Wimbledon theatre’s studio. Tickets are only £10, so I thought why not? So it was Russell Howard and Mark Oliver in the studio.

The studio was small, seating about 50-60 people, painted all black and just the mic in the middle, with access to the bar and exit. Extremely hot.

First up was Russell Howard, the guy from “Mock the Week” (blond, vaguely looks like Maxxie from Skins). If this was the preview, then the tour (inc. Edinburgh) is going to be brilliant. Here’s some of the stuff he ran through, going for about 1hr: (Highlight to read)

• His father taking part in the Tour De France/bit of a talk about his parents
• Porn in his day (includes a joke around aliens, the earth and an erection)
• God, Religion (which involves a T-Rex)
• His adventures at the gym (which involve accusing a young girl of being a pirate and a boy hiding in a locker)
• Suicide (and the anger of humanity)
• Younger brothers being ’social experiences’ (which include Marbles, a Christmas and Childline)
• Threesomes
• Gays and Floods (in reference to a Bishop claiming that homosexuality caused floods, which include the England Cricket Team)
• The Newspaper’s dramatics
• Living with people/Living alone
• A few recycled jokes from ‘Mock the Week’ (the Muslim/Ninja one)
• Bits on drugs/How his brain works/Imagination
• Visits to the Doctor (Recal caner, as opposed to the penile cancer he’s mentioned on ‘Mock the Week’)
• Living in Bath

There was a lack of audience participation, which I didn’t quite like (aside from a woman talking to someone loudly being misinterpreted by Russell as heckling), but he did end up mocking the audience at the end. In fairness, he did explain how he was used to larger gigs (this was the studio, smaller, seating around 50-60 people, with only about 30-40 of the seats filled by my reckoning?), with him also claiming that was ‘the wankiest excuse ever’. I agree, but it does make sense.

The majority was him talking, but his style is very much the same as on “Mock the Week”: voices, actions, poses, anecdotes, but this (being slightly different from “Mock the Week”) was also complemented by stuff he may not necessarily get away with on TV, more swearing, more sex jokes. But for the majority of the show, everyone was laughing, aside from the suicide bit, but that turn out funny in the end as well. (It’s an anecdote, not just a lecture of the morals of suicide, thought it might just be best to point out).

He did have his Ipod out as well. My guess is that he was going to do something with it, but I reckon he was just recording it.

Though I say if you do get a chance to go and see him at Edinburgh or on tour this year, go. Definitely.

After the show, there was a break between the two (probably to let the room air out slightly, and for the fag/booze break), but my mate said to me that “Russell must work really hard. Think about it.” And then he rambled on a little. But I did think. He’s a regular on Mock the Week, which is filmed (presumably) a day or two before the show airs on a Thursday. This series is running for 12 episodes, now, my maths isn’t as good as I can hope for, but I reckon that it should co-incide with his tour and Edinburgh. Unless he’s commuting to do Mock the Week, he can’t really be there. Saying that, during the gig he said that he lived in Bath (and being awoken by Morris dancers). More commuting? This is starting to sound like more work than it really should be.

Mark Oliver came up second. From the off he was funny, making two entrances (because he though the door to the stage actually lead to an ‘alcovey bit and then a hallway’). He walked in and claimed that he’s just walked in ‘looking like [he's] going to take a piss’. And he had music set up and everything for his entrance.

He also ran for about an hour: (Again, highlight)

• Weston-Super-Mare’s beach phalluses/Pier
• Relationships
• Brownies Fight Club
• Cancer/Colonoscopy/Angeograms and technology
• West Country ‘folk’ being laid back (includes the 2 camels on the M6)
• Funerals and music
• Men’s ability (or rather act) of sleeping
• Sex in love/out of love
• The local area (Wansworth)
• A bit of French/Wii in France
• Air Hockey
• Warming up Ready, Steady, Cook/Ainsley Harriot
• Being caught having sex by parents
• Inability to talk/Serious situations
• Born again Christians (includes a porn magaizine, illustrated bible and cut out pictures)
• Pacemakers (including if the joke was racist or not – let’s just say an Ethiopian was mentioned)
• How he can’t do smart jokes because of his accent. (One stands out: Two cats are sitting on a fence, going”mew”, “mew”, “mew”, “mew”, “mew”. Which one falls off first? The one with the smallest mew. The co-efficiant of friction. Everyone laughed in a “wtf?” manner.)
• A few bad jokes (Cider = Apple Grumble and a Pigeon’s coup)

There was a lot more audience participation with him, which I prefer, ranging from the larger men in the audience, a visiting relationship, advice to the younger audience member and his family. His jokes were more sex orientated and what he claims as ‘wanking and falling over’ jokes.

Admittedly I couldn’t find much on this Mark Oliver as a comedian (Chorlte.co.uk have him listed as Mark Olver… not a good start, the google searches were about other people and the myspace lists him as Mark Olver as well), so I didn’t really have much expectations. And to be brutally fair, I was going to see Russell first and foremost. I thoroughly enjoyed his gig and I would see him again.

I was thinking about how life as a comedian may not be that easy as well. Mark was saying he lived near Bristol with his girlfriend. That’s also quite a commute. He’s also doing the warm-up for Ready, Steady, Cook. Not the most exciting of gigs. But he’s happy with himself, so I can’t really argue.

Both guys claim to be good friends (both being from Bristol, I imagine there is some sort of connection), aside from just mentioning it, I didn’t really get a feel for the friendship. It would have shown a little bit more if both had sat in on the other’s gig and (possibly) heckled. But that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

Overall, for £10, seeing these two guys was a bargain. I wonder if I’ve got the money to see any more previews next week.