In February 2025, Marcus Brigstocke hits the road with his brand new show Vitruvian Mango.

What are men for? Most heavy things can be lifted by machines and most problems can be solved by computers and most puddles can be crossed without us gallantly draping our capes over them - so are we fellas of any use at all?

Award winning MAN Marcus Brigstocke thinks lads might still serve some useful function. But what is it?  In his brand new tour show, Marcus will resolve the entire issue once and for all (in a non-patriarchal, open minded, progressive sort of way).

DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man is the image of the ideal male form. Marcus’ Vitruvian Mango is the same, but sweeter, softer, seasonally available and, when ripe, delicately perfumed.

Marcus is regarded as a major comedy, writing, and acting talent and he regularly performs stand up to sell-out audiences on tour.

Vitruvian Mango visits The Roses Theatre, Tewkesbury on Thursday 24 April 2025.

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That’s a fetching image of you for the tour poster. It's a homage to Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous portrait of the perfectly proportioned male. Did you go into intensive training or is it the magic of photoshop?

I wondered if you'd ask. I was snowboarding at the Altitude Festival this year and I was still carrying some extra lockdown weight, so I decided the weight had to go. I went to the gym and ate broccoli. Lots of broccoli. Whenever I was hungry I’d eat a piece of Broccoli the size of my own head. Lost two and a half stone, which is probably why I allowed the photo shoot to happen in the way that it did. I like to think I’m Vitruvian Man but a bit softer and sweeter and at my best quite delicately perfumed. Hence Vitruvian Mango.

 

Your show is about man being useless and tackling figures such as controversial influencer Andrew Tate...

We are a bit redundant. Seriously I think we are facing a big crisis. Suicides and struggles with mental illness are really high amongst men. Men like me in their fifties seem to hit a wall while young men seem to be voting for authoritarian figures. We need some better heroes. I mean, if David Attenborough is in any way disgraced before he dies, I think that'll be it for men.

The show asks why do loads of young men admire Andrew Tate In his in his strange little trunks and his shiny dressing gown? The original idea was to come on in little pants like Andrew Tate, which would get a laugh, but then I’d have to stand there like that for 90 minutes...

 

It would certainly be very different to your trademark smart onstage clothes.

I think dressing up to be onstage is really important. I try to do shows in jumpers and I can’t. All my magic goes away. I like to wear a cardigan with a shirt and tie because it tells the audience I’ve thought about this. I see the comics who go onstage in a t-shirt I think 'how do you know the difference between who you were ten seconds ago and who you are supposed to be now?' The me onstage is different from the me offstage. I’m still me but a bigger, heightened version of me.

 

 

What research did you do for the show?

I’ve got an eighty-something dad. I'm in my fifties. I've got a 22-year-old son from my first marriage and a three-year-old son so I’ve got all the ages of man in my life and none of us knows quite what we're doing. I’d say the three-year-old has the clearest idea of what his purpose is. Like all my shows I’m trying to grapple with an idea, but I’m onstage for one purpose alone, which is to make people laugh. I've always liked the deal that if you're laughing I’m doing my job.

 

 

Do you think you are a good father?

I try to be, though my kids are probably more interested in their phones than me. But I’m proud of the way that I raised my kids. I think I know about parenting, I’m just too tired to do it now. But also my first marriage failed and I've carried a lot of shame and guilt about what happened. That's another thing that the show looks at. Why is it difficult to be flawed as a man? I like being a man. 

And although Rachel is a very strong feminist she likes me having big arms. But when I’m in the gym I see men who are able to flip over a car and I think ‘what’s the point, we’ve got machines that can do that sort of thing?’ We live in a society where one man’s physical dominance over another increasingly doesn’t matter, which is why I’m so fascinated by the Andrew Tate thing.

 

 

Is it harder to be a young man now than when you were young?

It's really shit. When I was young I was a goth, so I had a tribe I belonged to, but for my 22-year-old son It's really scary. There don’t seem to be heroes. Bowie’s dead, Morrissey - we don’t talk about him. Probably not Keir Starmer. 

The #metoo movement for his age group has meant that they are all terrified of talking to girls. They're terrified of any transgression. I’ll tell you who gets cancelled, it’s not comedians, it’s young men. They get cancelled in their own social group.

 

 

You work with your wife Rachel on the podcast How Was It For You? Does she have any input into your creative process for your solo shows?

I always call her after a gig when running new stuff in. She gives me props for having been a brave boy for doing new stuff. We go through it and as she’s a bit younger and a woman she has a really helpful perspective.

 

Male comedians have been under fire in recent years for their behaviour...

There are a few straight white male comedians who've done some terrible things, but most of us have not done anything wrong and yet we feel a bit shit about who we are. We all feel a bit like we're part of a group that caused a lot of problems. I don't just mean comedians, but I mean, you know straight white men.

 

Comedy has been a very male-dominated world. Is the balance finally shifting?

It was nothing for me to be on all-male line-ups for an entire weekend ten years ago. It didn't occur to a single one of us how there's never any women on and then you get people like Rachel gigging and you go ‘oh, this is better, this is a better night of comedy.' Now when I’m on an all-male bill it doesn’t feel right.

 

Is there any rivalry between you and Rachel. Do you sometimes come up with the same material?

We both came up with a bit about Liz Truss meeting the Queen who died shortly afterwards, but Rachel’s was in the form of a song so turned out very differently. She's got lots of material about me. I've actually got a lot less about her. It's really important this that Vitruvian Mango is not me complaining about women or feminism. It’s not feminism that has made young men feel like shit, it’s the patriarchy.

 

You've spoken about your addictions in the past, particularly to food. Do you think you are addicted to laughter? 

I’ve been far more dependent on the approval of strangers sitting in the darkness in the past than I am now. My life now is hugely rewarding separate to making comedy. But yes, getting the approval of large groups of strangers who hang on your every word is joyful but also dangerously addictive.

 

I guess the challenge in comedy is the quest for the perfect joke…

I’ve been working on a routine about Sir Walter Raleigh laying his cape over a puddle for Elizabeth I as being the high point of patriarchal bullshit. I’m still working on it because I think there's something in it, but it'll be interesting to see whether it makes the final edit. Without wanting to overblow what we do it's the same principle as sculpting. There's a shape in there and the thing is to chip away all the shit that you don't need to leave the Vitruvian Mango.