Consider being locked out of your own theatrical show… That is precisely what happened to British comic Mark Watson.
The comedian claims he was ‘shut out’ of his own stand-up concert in Bristol, which caused havoc.
On Sunday (5 November), the comedian, 43, told audience members at the Tobacco Factory pub that he couldn’t ‘get in’ to the theatre 15 minutes before his performance.
The Mock The Week actor shared a video of himself speaking with ticketholders before being allowed inside the venue to begin his concert.
In the clip, captioned ‘locked out of my own show’, Mark said: ‘Hello, everyone, I’m the, to be fair, the comedian.
‘And we ought to be opening these doors now because the show starts obviously in 15 minutes, but there’s no other way to say it, I can’t get in.’
‘So, couple of options. We could do it here, but you paid for a seat and you paid to be in a room resembling a theatre,’ he explained.
‘So, I just want you to know, in case it looks like I’m very complacent, just drinking at the bar, well firstly, yes, I am drinking at the bar, but I’m taking the situation as seriously as you are.’
He added that the staff were unable to ‘do anything about it’, assuring fans it ‘wasn’t their fault.’
‘Actually, it’s no one’s fault and also I have been here, I’ve been here an hour to let them know I’m here and the aim of that was that everyone would relax but I say they’ve over-relaxed a bit,’ he joked.
‘So, I think the show will start on time but you’d love those doors to be unlocked relatively soon.’
As fate would have it, Mark stated that this was not the first time he has been denied entry to a location while on tour.
Ending his announcement, he told fans: ‘I would say see you in there but there are no guarantees.’
The video was uploaded to TikTok, where it has received 1.2 million views – evidently, people are enjoying his fright!
Mark’s Instagram followers were in stitches as he published the video.
Sensing a recurring theme, one follower commented: ‘It could only happen to you Mark’.
‘The secondhand anxiety has brought me to the point of death’, wrote another.
When one fan asked for an update on the situation and whether ticket holders managed to get in, one person replied: ‘we did, only started a little bit late’.
Others praised Mark for handling the stressful situation ‘brilliantly’.
‘Shame you were stuck in the bar, that’s terrible!’, another mocked.
Mark is presently touring his show Search, with future appearances in Newcastle, Leeds, and Belfast.
In addition to hosting his own programmes, the comedian has participated on TV panel series such as Would I Lie To You? and QI, and he was a participant on Channel 4’s Taskmaster.
A spokesperson for Tobacco Factory Theatres said in response to the incident: ‘We had two sold-out gigs one after the other for Mark yesterday (Sunday).
‘Mark showed up an hour or so before the matinee to do his sound checks with our technical team, which all went well, he then left the building for food.
‘Our front of house duty manager then went to do their building safety checks and seemingly, as the title of Mark’s show suggests, they all had to Search for each other afterwards to get him access to the space again.
‘We’re very grateful to both Mark and the audience for their good humour pre-show, we often open the house 10 minutes or so before the start time, so business as usual in that sense.’
The venue concluded: ‘We’re very pleased that everyone enjoyed the performance in the auditorium and not in the bar.’
