Comedy review: Mark Little, Defending the Caveman at the Leicester Square Theatre

Tim Clark3 July 2009

Ex-neighbours star Mark Little confronts the nuances of the most important relationship on Earth but is he a saviour of gender relations or a chauvinist pig? In part one of a two part series, Amy Powell gives us a women's view...Humans. From negotiators and co-ordinators to hunters and gatherers, clearly we are a species split into two very different cultures - or at least this is how Mark Little tells it.

Starting with what appears to be a video analysis of his own marriage, Little appears to be selling the male race slightly short with a host of slanderous comments, and a Bridget Jones’ type solidarity spreads through the female half of the audience.

For the first ten minutes, this appeared to be all that was spreading through the audience, as laughter was thin on the ground.

Yet fear not, for what laughter is missing from the beginning is more than made up by the plethora of analytical comedy that Little crams in to the rest of his act.

Little makes belly-roaring comparisons between the sexes, treading the fine line between comradeship with the male half of the audience and an amazing (if slightly worrying) insight in to the female species.

Adding personal references throughout, Little manages to bring a personality to his show, epitomised by his other half ‘The lovely Cath’ (Little’s wife) which adds to the humour.

From playground antics to living together, Little explains the phenomenon behind dirty undies on the floor to, the ‘locking-in’ during TV time and the phenomenon of the couple conversation post mixed-sex socialising.

Little deftly explains to the ladies why men will always keep the ‘tight-arse’ of the group in the round and why fishing together, but not talking, is very, very important.

By the time Little enters into his grand finale, half-naked with spear in hand, you become convinced that, as a man, he is just a hunter, not the arsehole that comes home drunk on the Saturday night.

Amy Powell

Mark Little's Defending the Caveman is currently running at the Leicester Square Theatre until April 5th.

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Mark Little

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