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Brighton Year-Round 2025

Mark Tournoff: A Word With the Bird

Mark Tournoff, Alistair Lock, Grace Bridger, Ali B

Genre: character comedy, Character Stand up, Contemporary, Costume, Fringe Theatre, Live Music, Musical Theatre, Sketch Comedy, Stand-Up, Theatre

Venue: SweetVenues, The Yellow Book, Brighton

Festival:


Low Down

Mark Tournoff has honed a learned haplessness as compare of Fringe acts. It’s not far from 1980s Russell Harty’s brand of coming apart at the seam. Conversely it’s a stitch-up

from following acts of a revue he’s put together. Here in A Word With the Bird  he’s showcasing new talent altogether, curated by him at SweetVenues’ YellowBook on a rough bi-monthly/quarterly basis, on Saturdays around 15.00.

Mark Tournoff’s an engaging and modest MC. The talent he promotes remains and makes visits worthwhile.

Review

Mark Tournoff has honed a learned haplessness as compare of Fringe acts. It’s not far from 1980s Russell Harty’s brand of coming apart at the seam. Conversely it’s a stitch-up

from following acts of a revue he’s put together. Here in A Word With the Bird  he’s showcasing new talent altogether, curated by him at SweetVenues’ YellowBook on a rough bi-monthly/quarterly basis, on Saturdays around 15.00.

We last saw Tournoff showcase recognised and unknown Fringe talent in Marvin and the Dodgyspinners at the Bubble on June 1st. It was where his gift for writing catchy music redeemed a ramshackle parade of vivid talent, talented if under-rehearsed work, and one or two misfires.

Tournoff’s acts as ever appear as themselves. Here Tournoff jettisons the gossamer narrative framework of Marvin and instead simply introduces those who might have careers. And the bird… ? That’s difficult to describe, but appears on Tournoff’s shoulder, and the prize for a Lego hat goes to him as well. There’s other Lego-crafted names. One performer accidentally exploded theirs. As metaphors these all went nowhere this time; but induce a rush of impure farce.

That fits with the first performer. Who’s already enjoyed a memorable career. At the time of performance Alistair Lock’s outstanding soundscape for New Venture Theatre’s six-hander Macbeth was playing. Lock’s had a distinguished life in sound design working for Big Finish and BBC-derived work like audio Dr Who, Blake’s Seven and others. Here Lock embarks on his stand-up narrative of someone born in beautiful Salisbury but growing up in Avebury. He plays on the binaries of the land of lost cathedrals vs his grim new town, despite Stonehenge.

It’s wittily dispatched, though Lock’s method shifts. Without spoiling his one-liners, Lock’s start is coming out as gay in Salisbury. Schoolboys queue to beat him up; some starved to death: wrong queue, missing school lunches. And his colour-blindness scotches flying ambitions; driving generally a grey rag to a bull.

But Lock’s edge lies in setting up deadpan bad jokes trumped by a beautiful twist. Lock certainly cuts it. He knows he needs just to polish pace (not delivery). As for timing shows, he’s just come off adjusting a continually-playing sound design! Snappier intros from Tournoff passim would help. But Lock’s is a distinct voice, one that’s arrived fully-formed; certainly one to watch.

Grace Bridger 17, is studying music/drama at college; and dancing since the age of two! Specialising in music theatre, particularly musicals, she offered after a brief discussion of her future, a torch-song from Wicked: “Popular”. Bridger already has this sly “I want” song in her bones: the attitude, the accent and above all the vocal timbre required to scale musicals. An appealing lyric soprano, expressive of character, wit, timing, top Cs and much else are effortlessly scaled. A strikingly mature talent for her years. Bridger’s clearly drama-school-bound. It’d be wonderful to see her fully fledged in a few years.

Finally Ali B, a fairly seasoned Fringe performer,  appeared in a sketch of her own where Tournoff stars as a put-upon driver using Chat and Ali B provides the demented AI. Lock briefly appears as a policeman. It’s slapstick and there’s good gags, spinning on the trope of AI with the inevitable AI-gone-wrong conceit. Ali B is clearly a comedic talent. The performance though needs rehearsal if people are paying £10 for such showcases.

Tournoff’s an engaging and modest MC. He knows his shortfalls, partly down to lack of rehearsal time;  and has clearly worked on them. Brevity, timing, above all rehearsal will again help his own shows and those he so generously promotes. That talent remains and makes visits worthwhile. He’ll be back in March.

 

Technical presentation SweetVenues. PR Mark Tournoff and Sarah Johnson

Published