Martin Mor: A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day

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“MARTIN MOR IS AS FUNNY AS FUCK.” Or at least that’s what Martin Mor wrote in my critic’s notepad. He’d spotted me as I was making discreet jottings and swooped down, wrestling my notepad and biro from me. “There you go,” he chuckled, ‘I’ve written your review for you now!” From then on in he kept checking I, and the rest of the audience, were enjoying themselves. For a heavily tattooed Irish man with both a physique and beard that wouldn’t disgrace Hagrid from Harry Potter, Martin Mor is disarmingly, almost charmingly, insecure.

But perhaps this is appropriate given the theme of his new show. A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day explores how different people can perceive the same person in very different ways. The show was inspired by two contrasting descriptions of himself he received in reviews from Edinburgh last year. One critic said he looked like, “a rapist Father Christmas,” while another complimented him on his warmth and friendliness. On display for the audience were the fruits of his investigations, including impressions of him by various artists and sketches of himself made in a life-drawing class (the results of which he’d considerably enhanced - no prizes for guessing where!).

At times Mor’s material is repetitive and the pace of the show flags. But perhaps this is an inevitable consequence of his efforts to connect with each of his audience members on an individual level. In truth he’s not quite as funny as fuck, but a genial giant and skilled raconteur.