Comedian Mark Watson Makes a Request Stop in Chorley

British comedian Mark Watson appears at Chorley Little Theatre on June 5th as part of his Request Stops tour.

Jayne Robinson

Date published: 18th Mar 2011

'Why aren't you coming to Berwick?' 'Why do you never visit Shropshire?' 'Is there a specific reason for your endless neglect of Chorley?'

Most people aren't troubled by questions of this sort in their everyday lives, but Mark Watson is. Every time he announces a set of tour dates, there are disappointed tweets from all corners of the UK not covered by his travels. Why are you going to Southampton instead of Inverness, people demand. What's the matter with Ipswich? Do you hate the Isle of Man?

And this is in spite of Mark's reputation as one of the hardest-working and most-constantly-travelling comics around. It almost seems as if the only way to ensure happy gig-goers is if he allow fans to dictate his entire schedule.

Can you guess where this is going? Last year, via his daily blog- loved by everyone except Frankie Boyle- Mark invited fans to suggest destinations for his 2011 shows. Over the past few months he's been sifting these suggestions, weeding out ones like Gaza posted by people seeking to trap and kill him, and calculating the most popular choices from what remained.

From now until Christmas he will traverse the country to perform at over 50 specially requested towns. He'll dole out a mixture of old favourites and new material, experimental stuff and greatest hits to those who have previously been deprived of his trademark frantic wit, rambling, emotional neediness etc. (He'll also go to a handful of most-requested repeat stops from last year's tour. But that's perhaps less newsworthy.)

The first leg of this democratic tour - shows in June and July - is now on sale. A load more request stops will be added for the autumn, as one of the UK's most eager-to-be-liked comics trundles obligingly around the nation like some sort of remote-controlled car being driven by a lunatic.

Tickets for Mark Watson at Chorley Little Theatre are available through Skiddle below. Get yours now!

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