Call most people 'a parrot-faced twat' and you might expect a punch in the throat. Martin Davis puts it on his CV.
For this lively comic's distinctive features are perhaps his greatest asset - and certainly the source for plenty of material. Visually, at least, you could say he was born to be a comic.
Thankfully, though, Davis's talents go more than a little further than looking a bit odd. For, as well as 'twat', the Viz reviewer his biography quotes also, and quite rightly, used the adjective 'hilarious'.
Objectively, it's a little hard to see why, but he is. He has a reluctance to stick to material and an even bigger dread of structure. Instead, he trades sometimes quite hard-edged banter with the audience - his attention flipping from table to table, selecting likely punters to be on the receiving a well-aimed quip.
Davis's brilliant talent is in whisking all these inconsequential exchanges into an electrified atmosphere, charged with laughter.
He's a natural born compere .He makes it look so easy - and there cannot be a much more difficult achievement than that.
“Davis is very, very good – and as host, held the show together” Daily Mirror
"a hilarious parrot-faced twat!" Viz
“On the ball, Davis, a consummate professional, never dies” Cape Times
“The star of the evening, for my money, was compere Martin Davis, a cockney stuffed with mercurial Welsh genes (surely?!), who had abrasive wit, tons of energy and an unparalleled ability talk dirty without causing too much offence” The Mercury
“Electric, sharp, and with a sympathetic face that looks like it was carved by a Polynesian shaman” Cape Argus
"abrasive wit, tons of energy and an unparalleled ability talk dirty without causing too much offence” The Mercury
