When you have nearly 300,000 Instagram followers who click on your posts for 30 seconds of comedic joy as an escape from daily doomscrolling, there's a lot of pressure to be funny. Not only virtually, but in person too.
Fortunately, when Zach Margs took to the stage in London’s West End last night for his first show since back surgery in the summer (hence its name, Zach’s Back), he had the audience very much on side.
Like the best of his peers, Zach has a knack of unearthing the hilarity from the mundane, and he started by sharing a seat-squirming story of his doctor advising him on the best positions for post-surgery sex – while his parents were sat on either side of his hospital bed.
And so it continued – there were tales of his dad’s cackhanded attempt at taking a selfie for his WhatsApp bio; being at the receiving end of a temperamental former boss (who, interestingly, was in the audience); and the time he convinced himself that the only reason he was ghosted after a perfect first date was because said date must have died following botched cosmetic surgery…
Yet, it’s Marg’s Israeli alter egos – sleazy single guy, taxi driver and El Al security guard – who have proved especially popular during his comedy career. (His spoof of Greta Thunberg being interrogated at Ben Gurion Airport is pure comic genius.) So, however affable Zach from north-west London is (and he is very affable), it was these personas which we were all waiting for.
But appear they did - and to great effect. As well as sharing the love-hate relationship he now has with El-Al, Margs’ pièce de resistance was when, in the guise of a smooth-talking Israeli, he worked his way through the audience, giving whip-smart responses to whatever material they supplied him with. Suffice to say, he managed to make at least one shidduch.
So, while “Zach Margs Unmasked” is probably one of the most likeable stand-ups on the comedy circuit – by the end of the evening, my daughter was asking me if we could invite him for Friday night dinner – it’s Zach Margs, the dodgy Israeli, who is still the best value for money.
This is because it’s as an impersonator that Margs excels. Not only did he treat us to chat-up lines straight out of Frishman Beach, but to brilliant impressions of his Indian back doctor and the Swedish barista he befriended to get free coffees – and whom he inadvertently outed as Jewish.
It’s good to see that Margs is back, and let’s hope nothing prevents a return visit soon to London as he now takes his show round Europe and then onto Israel.
Last June, he was stuck in Israel when things kicked off with Iran – and is still narked he only got a 50 per cent refund on his rental after it was all but destroyed in a missile attack. So, if something bad does come his way – be it major surgery or all-out war - there is no doubt Margs will turn it into fantastic material for another show.
@zachmargs
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