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2002 may have marked the end of what was known as Britain’s largest comedy hunt, the prestigious Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award – a sought-after conferment which attracted more than 1,000 entrants a year – but it was the start of life in comedy for its final winner, then 21 year old Mark Watson.

Hunted, found and crowned, fast-forward to Watson’s 27th birthday when a religious evangelist asked him, “Can I briefly talk to you about the point of life?” His excitement at the prospect of finding out something so important with such ease was soon dispelled when the man, rather disappointingly, just said a few things about God that didn’t quite add up.

Still, the seed in Watson’s head was sown, fertilised, and grown into his newest show.

Can I Briefly Talk To You About The Point Of Life? – a one hour trip about the meaning of existence, or not – is at the Brisbane Powerhouse next month from April 22 – 26.

In review, London’s Guardian newspaper wrote, “not just funny, but existentially essential”.

Hot-wired in to Watson’s over-analytical brain for the past two years, Australian audiences get him and love him. He was nominated for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s Barry Award for Best Show in 2006 (50 Years Before Death And The Awful Prospect Of Eternity), returned with I’m Worried That I’m Starting To Hate Almost Everyone In the World in 2007 and is firming up as a sell-out favourite again at this year’s Festival.

Watson has the ability to take insignificant events and describe them as having lasting consequences for world peace. He says he does it to vent and confesses to writing a suicide note after losing a game of Connect 4 as a child. Watson believes the best comedy stems from things which really don’t matter.

Recognised as an innovator, he earned fame at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2004 for a 24-hour marathon show – heralded as a seminal moment in Fringe comedy and the longest solo stand-up show in history – he finished by proposing to his girlfriend, Emily Howes, in front of 250 people (she said yes!). Watson followed up in 2005 with a 33-hour epic where he dedicated one minute to every year until 2005 and in 2006 performed for 36 hours non-stop. He brought his 24 hour super-comic-powers to Melbourne’s Comedy Festival last year and will perform 24 hours straight again this year from midnight Sunday April 6 until midnight Monday April 7.

Watson studied English at Cambridge University but as a ‘Footlighter’ found himself drawn to the life of a performer. Although he never thought stand-up would be his career – he treated it like a game to see how far he could get – he briefly considered the safety of a ‘serious job’, but fast and growing success being funny changed his mind.

Since that first win in 2002 Watson has won and been nominated for a raft of Awards, the most recent of them being the 2006 if.comeddies Panel Prize at the Edinburgh Fringe and the same year’s London Time Out Comic Of The Year.

One critic was moved to thank God Watson became a comedian, another claimed he was the highest achiever Edinburgh had seen this decade, and a third said they’d never seen a better stand-up.

And whilst Watson may not have wanted a ‘serious job’, per se, perhaps it is his serious side, or just making sure talent and education wastes not, wants not, that we discover he also writes novels.

Not just your from-the-microphone-to-funny-in-print-type, but a well-reviewed fine novelist renowned for delivering a cracking yarn.

His first novel, Bullet Points, came out in February 2004 and contrary to expectations, was mostly serious with humour here and there. It was commended as a Best First Novel, received great reviews and was commissioned as a screenplay for Ugly Duckling Films.

His second novel, A Light-Hearted Look At Murder, hit the shelves last year (Aug 2007), and like his first, has a lightness of touch, but is not a typescript of stand-up.

A book, Mark Watson Is Crap At The Environment, inspired from his mission to save the world despite not being very good at it; what he calls amateur environmentalism for those with no planet-saving qualifications, is due out this year.

His six-part radio series, Mark Watson Makes The World Substantially Better, aired on BBC Radio 4 from February 13 last year and was repeated in August.

Success follows Watson like a bad smell, and by any other name would be as sweet.

Thankfully, he says it’s his attention-seeking impulses that led him to pursue comedy instead of anything else.

Don’t miss his fragrantly good Can I Briefly Talk To You About The Point Of Life?

Watson thinks about it, so you don’t have to.

Brisbane Powerhouse
119 Lamington Street, New Farm
Tue 22 – Sat 26 Apr 7.30pm
Preview Tue 22 Apr
Tickets from $25
Powerhouse Theatre
Bookings: 3358 8600