This always happens and isn't just an Open Mike thing - they send out more tickets then there are seats so they can ensure they get a full house (or as near as possible).

Which does mean it isn't uncommon to turn people away - sometimes you are allowed to watch the recording in the lobby or studio cafe if they have the space...

>This always happens and isn't just an Open Mike thing - they send out more tickets then there are seats so they can ensure they get a full house (or as near as possible).


Well that's what I assumed, although it was a show where people who had heard about it had to go out of their way to hear about it, if you know what I mean.
It wasn't well publicised, so it just makes no sense to me that people who had made the effort to secure tickets should be turned away...

But a significant minority of people who get free tickets never bother to use them (probably as they didn't pay for them anyway so they're losing nothing) and TV companies over-allocate to avoid a half-empty studio. The tickets often say this on them...

>But a significant minority of people who get free tickets never bother to use them


Yes, but surely this is a strategic issue of distribution?

by simply changing the channels of distribution, it should be easy to fill an audience.
As it was, the channels of distribution made it sufficiently difficult to find out about the show in the first place and also would-be audience members had to write to the company for tickets.
If people found out about it this way and had gone to the trouble to write to the company, this is surely a pretty good indication that they plan to turn up.

What more do Open Mike want?

If they're so desperate to fill the audience, why not bus a load of students in? If it's free students will go to virtually anything.

Mike's such a nice guy, why dissect him for entertainment?

>it should be easy to fill an audience... also would-be audience members had to write to the company for tickets.

Yes but if people haven't paid they won't think twice about losing the tickets/ forgetting they were meant to go/ deciding not to bother cus its raining outside etc etc

A few people watching the show on a monitor in the bar (who were told they might not get seats anyway) is better than an empty audience because a bus load of students decided to stay in the pub instead.

Say Ailie how did you find Mark lamarr's new show?

Ha ha ha

>Say Ailie how did you find Mark lamarr's new show?

I was just waiting for that one to come up!

I thought it was alright, but a bit of a strange show...

I was very surprised to see so much material from his recent tour, but it was nice to see some of the new stuff he'd written with Sean Lock. You could definitely see his influence in places.

Despite being vegetarian, I found the line
"I'd eat the dolphin that saved my child"
very funny. I instantly assumed that this was something Sean had written. It seemed to be very 'him' and I'd love to know if it was!

The show was very 'gag-intensive.' I'd like to have seen Mark spending more time talking to John Humphreys and Germaine Greer, but as it was, they seemed to be included as an afterthought, after Mark's own stance on Morality.
As far as the topic of Morality goes it seemed to be under-explored. There was so much that could have been said, but was instead substituted for tour material.

The title sequence with Mark's head on the body of an infant, freaks me out. It's sooo horrible! I don't like it at all. As soon as it came on, I got about 5 text messages from friends asking if I'd seen it! :0)

Don't have much more to say about the show... give me time though!