Mark Walker seems to never be able to keep a straight face.

His wry smile suggests that he has the inside track on a joke that every other comedian at the Fringe is striving to find out, and it is this: Mark actually enjoys his job.

In fact he enjoys it so much that his jovial personality infects others. Sure, the Irish always possess a natural reserve of charm, but Walker takes this further: he is the entertainment world’s version Prozac and this energy manifests itself onstage as giant hour-long bundle of hyperactive comedy mayhem.

Walker’s show: Mark Walker, Scorpio, is the result of the comic’s search to find out whether his destiny to be a stand-up comedian was ever written in the stars and that he is, by nature, directed by his star-sign.

The personalities of many of the rich and famous are probed, from Marie Curie to Joseph Goebells, as Walker strives to work out where he fits within the celestial soup of his birth.

But Walker isn’t allow the dilemma of pondering whether he is simply passionate or actually vindictive ruin his sense of fun. Rather the plot is an excuse to put his energy into some kind of context.

Drawing on his own life story, Walker provides some tantalisingly amusing anecdotes of his exploits, from fronting an Estonian rock festival to pebble-dashing in Grimsby.

Walker does at times lose his audience, but usually not for very long. The entertainer in him won’t keep quiet for long enough to disenfranchise them from the show.

Sure, the plot at times is thin, but it is obvious that Walker simply wants to entertain and watching comedy with an almost innocent sense of enjoyment is a refreshing change.

Tim Clark

Mark Walker is appearing at the Gilded Balloon Teviot 20:00 until August 30th

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