Skip to content

FringeGuru

Home arrow Archive: Earlier Fringes arrow Archive: Edinburgh 2012 arrow Martin Mor: A Man You Don’t Meet Everyday
 
Martin Mor: A Man You Don’t Meet Everyday
Published on Tuesday, 21 August 2012
5

5 stars

The Stand Comedy Club II (venue website)
Comedy
2 Aug, 6:40pm-7:40pm; 3-12, 14-26 Aug, 8:10pm-9:10pm
Reviewed by Martin Lennon

 Recommended for age 18+ only. Venue may not permit under-18's - check with venue before booking.

Maybe Martin “Bigpig” Mor is best known for his unconventional appearance, with his long beard and tattoos, but if you look beyond this then you will find one of the most underrated comedians working in the UK today. As the title professes, he isn’t a man you’d meet every day, and that fact makes his show that bit more special. Mor can be a contradiction; he comes across as the nicest man in comedy, but at the same time can easily offend every person in the audience. This, however, is his power as a performer, and the crowd lapped it up from start to finish.

The location at The Stand Two felt like someone's living room and the sold-out 40-seater was small enough to appreciate the ramblings of Mor. He dedicated a lot of his show to the audience members, but also had plenty of outstanding material of his own, which included his travels in Texas and how he ended up in a strange road house meeting the locals. However, in the middle of the show he started on a topic most reviewers dread: reviewers themselves. Last year he received two contrasting reviews, and he wanted to find out what people really thought of him.

On the basis of this performance, Mor shouldn’t worry how people view him. But if he wants a description, I would say he is a cross between Billy Connolly and the BFG (Roald Dahl's 'Big Friendly Giant'), and in that vein it's fair to say that the gig was a balance between laugh-out-loud moments and more gentle stories. The biggest laughs came when he made fun of the crowd, and his verbal abuse of some of the audience members was among the best I have ever seen in a comedy show. He didn't hold back and skillfully managed to embarrass a range of people, including a family foolish enough to sit in the front row and an 18-year-old who had brought his cycling-obsessed dad along.

A young member of the second row who waxed his eyebrows also felt the full brunt of Mor’s twisted sense of humour. A great comical skill Mor has mastered is to link the audience member’s misdemeanours with stories from his colourful past, and in this case he spoke of his friend Big “Gay” Dave, who earned the nickname by being the first man to use conditioner at the showers of his Coleraine rugby club. But Mor was so quick with joke after joke that there was little time for respite; his exploits as a life model in a nude art class proved one of the many highlights, as was his view on where females should get a butterfly tattoo.

What was admirable about Mor was that he has such a gentle side, but he could also easily switch his routine to something darker, without crossing the line. While he did joke about topics like paedophillia and testicles, this was part of the multidimensional approach of his comedy. It may not be something all audience members will warm too, and needless to say his style is not for everyone, but it should be clear that his jokes are never sinister and never amount to bullying.

There’s much more to Mor than cheap laughs and banter with the crowd. Like the reviews last year, he may well polarise opinions. But this crowd seemed totally won over by his blistering comic performance – and by the end of the gig, we all wanted Mor Mor Mor.

<< Some Small Love Story   Moon >>

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

These are archived reviews of shows from Edinburgh 2012.  We keep our archives online as a courtesy to performers, and for readers who'd like to research previous years' reviews.

Edinburgh 2012 Five Stars

5 stars Comedy
Totally Tom


5 stars Comedy
The Magical Adventures of Pete Heat


5 stars Theatre
Bye Bye World


5 stars Comedy
Barbershopera: The Three Musketeers


5 stars Comedy
Truth


5 stars Theatre
The House of Shadows


5 stars Cabaret
Briefs


5 stars Theatre
Made for Each Other - Free


5 stars Comedy
Tony Law: Nonsense Overdrive


5 stars Comedy
Ivo Graham and Liam Williams


5 stars Comedy
Hannibal Buress: Still Saying Stuff


5 stars Comedy
The Blanks' Big Break


5 stars Theatre
A Clockwork Orange


5 stars Comedy
Richard Wiseman: Psychobabble


5 stars Comedy
Martin Mor: A Man You Don’t Meet Everyday


5 stars Theatre
1984


5 stars Comedy
Swedenborg, the Devil and Me


5 stars Theatre
The Trench


5 stars Theatre
Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut


5 stars Theatre
Joyced!


5 stars Theatre
An Evening With Dementia


5 stars Comedy
Scott Agnew: Tales of the Sauna


5 stars Theatre
Comedian Dies in the Middle of Joke


5 stars Comedy
Chris Ramsey: Feeling Lucky


5 stars Comedy
The Horne Section - Live at the Grand!


5 stars Theatre
How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found


5 stars Theatre
The Life and Sort of Death of Eric Argyle


5 stars Theatre
Songs of Lear


5 stars Cabaret
Jonny Woo: Wonder Woo-Man


5 stars Comedy
Josie Long: Romance and Adventure


5 stars Comedy
10 Films With My Dad


5 stars Theatre
4.48 Psychosis


5 stars Theatre
As You Like It


5 stars Theatre
Appointment With The Wicker Man


5 stars Comedy
Jessie Cave: Bookworm


5 stars Comedy
Morgan & West: Lying, Cheating Scoundrels


5 stars Theatre
Hearts on Fire


5 stars Theatre
Rainbow


5 stars Comedy
Chris Dangerfield: Sex Tourist


5 stars Comedy
Chris McCausland: Not Blind Enough


5 stars Theatre
Chatroom


5 stars Comedy
Peacock & Gamble Don't Even Want To Be On Telly Anyway


5 stars Theatre
I Heart Hamas: And Other Things I'm Afraid to Tell You


5 stars Comedy
John Robertson - The Dark Room - Free


5 stars Kids'
Dr Brown Brown Brown Brown Brown and His Singing Tiger