Martin Mor: The Call of the Golden Frog

Jovial Northern Irishman Martin Mor is a comedy compere without guests, largely relying on audience interaction to deliver the goods during this old school performance.

By the end of his enjoyable set pretty much every person in the compact room, including the venue technician, has been joshed, flirted with or abused by the bearded comic formerly known as Bigpig.

As he somewhat needlessly explains early in proceedings, the show is structured around a number of headings displayed on a stand stage-left. “The Road to Excess” signals talk about booze and drugs, “This Mortal Coil” heralds in musings on ageing, while “The Beast With Two Backs” is self-explanatory. Meanwhile, the colourful amphibian of the title gives the former circus performer a chance to do one of his catalogue of impressive party pieces.

You wonder why he bothers, though – for every laugh he gets with the act itself, he gets two louder ones by wading back into a game audience. The twinkle in his eye gets him far – at one point he seems to threaten one front rower with serious sexual assault and make it sound jocular.

Unfortunately, the sheer gusto he displays when interacting with the punters means there is an inevitable loss of pace when he does get back to the show proper. This ends up in a catch-22 in which he needs to keep momentum up, but can only do that by going to the audience, leading to another lull when he returns to his prepared material. It’s fun but hardly essential viewing.