Glasgow comedian to perform largest show to date inspired by sobriety

Mark’s upcoming show at the Pavilion Theatre blends his stand-up, music and comedy sketches together for the first time and will take the audience through his recovery journey.

He explained: "It’s a show that’s combining stand up, living sketches taking you through my recovery journey because I’m now seven months sober.

"There’s music as well, I like to incorporate music into my stand-up."

He continued: "I’m in recovery so I go to meetings and stuff and I’m very heavily involved in that now and that’s what’s turned a lot of my life around for me.

"It was a bit of a mess before that so getting sober was critical in progressing with my career."

Mark first came to attention with viral videos Stop Filming Me Courtney and People Make Glass Gow alongside his brother Paul Black, who has also been making waves in the comedy scene in recent years.

Mark turned to stand-up in 2021 and he was awarded runner-up in the So You Think You’re Funny competition at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

After studying French at university and teaching in the country for a year, he then took a French language version of his set to Paris in early 2023.

He went on to headline his own show at the Gilded Balloon later that year and released his viral comedy hit song The Randan as Tony Tumeric, a parody of Gerry Cinnamon, with Tony set to release his own album of songs by the end of this year.

During The Drink. The Drug, The Scratchcairds., Mark will also be joined on stage by The Ewart Bros who are known for their viral pranks, Highrise bagging and fly-tipping videos.

They will perform a live parody of James English’s podcast Anything Goes which features people talking about their real-life stories and experiences.

Mark, 29, said: "He always mentions how people can change no matter what you’ve been through and he always talks about the drink, the drugs and gambling but I thought the scratchcards was quite a good thing because I thought it would be quite funny losing everything to scratchcards."

Mark Black and The Ewart Bros. (Image: Eduardo Garcia Martin)

Mark and Paul, who grew up in Corkerhill, first started doing sketches together around five years ago after enjoying comedy shows such as Summer Heights High and Limmy.

He says it has helped to also have his brother in the comedy industry, even though he says he never saw himself as a comedian growing up.

He said: "My brother was the funny one, I was the weird one.

"I started playing guitar and piano from around 10 so I knew I wanted to go down some sort of musical route but I never knew I would combine comedy and music."

He continued: "Paul and I have got our own style and went our own directions which is good because we can support each other and not be battling against each other.

"My mum doesn’t understand it, she’s like ‘I don’t get yous, I don’t get why people find you funny’, so she’s supportive but she doesn’t quite get it."

Mark says he was a "really shy kid" growing up and people from school would be surprised to see him getting on a stage now in front of such a large audience.

However, he says he came out of his shell when working in supermarkets and then living in France.

He said: "I’m not nervous but I’m nervously excited because it’s a massive crowd.

"I’ve never played to this big a crowd before but it’s really warmed my heart thinking these people are coming to see me."

Mark Black will bring his show The Drink. The Drugs. The Scratchcairds. to the Pavilion Theatre on Thursday, March 21.