Markus Birdman
Markus Birdman @ The Tuxedo Cat – Blue Room
7:30pm, Mon 21 Feb 2011
I like Markus Birdman. He’s a lovely bloke, a very open and forthright and friendly chap to talk to. He’s always up for a chat, his unique jacket making him an easy character to spot on the street.
Unfortunately, I saw him straight after an emotional rollercoaster – and that meant that I probably wasn’t in as receptive a mood as he deserved. In fact, I really struggled to get into the groove of his show early on… because Birdman isn’t really an “impact” kind of comedian.
In fact, I’d go so far as to call Birdman a gentle comedian. That’s not to say that he’s not filthy (the profanity gleefully came forth, though there’s precious little smutty material to be found), nor contentious (he freely pokes fun at religion); it’s just that he tends to be very humble and eloquent with his delivery. A shouty chap Markus is not.
Amongst his repertoire this evening was a series of tales from his teaching days, along with some banter targeting the British habit of saying one thing whilst meaning another. A little bit of critical analysis on advertising jingles helped things along, but Birdman’s best material centred on his daughter. Through tales of being mistaken for a paedophile when hiding behind hedges whilst playing with her in the park, to his willingness to stand up to his daughter’s naïveté (and, in the process, crushing her hopes and dreams), there’s always a glimmer of fondness in his eye that brings a big dose of heart to the jokes.
Sure, there’s some… ummm… oddities in his act: his airplane joke, where he recounts the second time he’d been physically attacked, seemed to go absolutely nowhere. I’m assuming that it was just a weak joke, rather than just missing a sidetracked punchline, because the last couple of minutes of the show was an avalanche of callbacks. And that torrent of closure was certainly a fantastic end to the show – sure, it lacked the precision of a Billy Connolly conclusion, but it was performed with an earnestness and honesty that befitted the rest of the show.
I’m just sorry I wasn’t in the most jovial of moods from the get-go.