Comedian Mark Watson was late to his own show after being locked out of the Bristol venue with his audience.
The panel show regular was due to perform his show, ‘Searchâ at the Tobacco Factory in his home city of Bristol on Sunday. However, the theatre was still locked 15 minutes before he was meant to be on stage.
Watson, who has appeared on prime time comedy television shows, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, QI and Would I Lie To You?, posted a video on Instagram from the theatre bar, sharing his confusion and explaining the situation to the audience who were also unable to get in.
He said, âWe could do it here, but you paid for a seat and you paid to be in a room resembling a theatre so I just wanted you to known, in cast it looks like Iâm very complacent, just drinking at the bar, yes I am drinking at the bar, but Iâm taking the situation as seriously as you are.â
Watson had been preparing throughout the day to minimise stress during the event. He said, âIâve been here an hour ago to let them know Iâm here and the aim of that was that everyone would relax but I say theyâve over relaxed.â
He also added that heâd been to the venue earlier in the day, saying, âIâd already been into the venue a couple hours before, then gone out to lunch with family around the corner.
âSo Iâd done most of the set up but as a result when I came back it didnât seem like they were expecting me, the doors were locked which meant the audience couldnât get in but neither could I.â
While he did describe being locked out as âquite panic inducingâ he maintained that it was âno oneâs faultâ.
The show eventually started, later than planned. According to the BBC, spokesperson for the venue said, âwe had two sold-out gigs one after the other for Mark yesterday, 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.
âOur front-of-house duty manager then went to do their building safety checks and seemingly, as the title of Markâs show suggests, they all had to search for each other afterwards to get him access to the space again.â
They expressed their gratitude to Watson and his audience saying, âWeâre very grateful to both Mark and the audience for their good humour pre-show. Weâre very pleased that everyone enjoyed the performance in the auditorium and not in the bar.â
The next performance of Watsonâs tour will be on Thursday November 9 at The Lights theatre in Andover.
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