Stand-Up Review – An Evening and a Little Bit of a Morning with Mark Steel

When someone says comedy and Scotland, one thing comes to mind, the Edinburgh Fringe. While Scotland’s capital city steals the headlines when it comes to comedy Glasgow’s International Comedy Festival goes under the radar, running from March 15 till April 2.

The Fringe is often criticised for being overpriced, grotesquely commercialised and creating a factory line of young aspiring comedians – struggling to stand out in an oversaturated market. Glasgow’s comedy festival is the polar opposite of this, unpretentious and underrated. This year’s festival has attracted acts such as up-and-coming Phil Wang and Scottish comic Susie McCabe.

However, what brought me out on a rainy Glasgow evening was the Glasgow writer and comedian Mark Steel. Entering Scotland’s largest nightclub, the Garage, rather summed up the offbeat feel of the festival. The venue has hosted the likes of Prince and Paulo Nutini and sitting in my fold-out seat waiting for the comedy to start just felt bizarre.

Mark Steel has been on the scene for a long time now, with politics ingrained into his act mixed with witty observations about everyday life; Steel is something rare in the world of arts, a working-class left-wing comic now firmly part of the liberal cultural establishment. On this evening everything that makes Mark Steel such a unique comic was on show: hilarious political takedowns delivered in a way that was not pompous or patronizing.

His frantic, frankly bonkers stage presence mixed in with some fantastic impressions amalgamated to create a critique of UK society that resonated with the Glasgow audience. Steel is unapologetically political and the current government gave him no lack of ammunition. However, his jokes were more than just Tory bashing, weaving an intellectual narrative of the state of British politics, including the failure of the left.  

His ability to articulate and observe current affairs in a way that engages the audience is second to none. When the south Londoner took the audience through the coverage of The Queen’s funeral from the viewpoint of Huw Edwards, he had the crowd in raptures. There is perhaps no one better than Steel at poking fun at the more ridiculous aspects of British life and his charisma shines through in his observational comedy.

However, the two-hour set was not a self-congratulatory political monologue. Steel spoke about his childhood love of comedy, reminiscing about comedians he used to see in working men’s club. This transitioned into Steel sitting down at a keyboard cracking timeless jokes in between parodying songs in the style of the men’s clubs of his childhood. The highlight of this was Steel introducing his take on Radiohead’s classic song Creep as mental health song, poking fun at the quintessentially British stereotype of not being able to display emotion.

Steel throughout the night centered around how far we’ve progressed as a society since his childhood, despite the doom and gloom. The set encapsulated the perfect blend between political quips and old-school humour, illustrating the comedian’s evergreen nature, despite the ever-changing world of politics and comedy.