By Eunice Ng

Despite his confidence and animated delivery, Mark Lee’s jokes lacked mass appeal.

What: Mark Lee Rally 2009 (NC16)
Where: Drama Centre Theatre
When: June 14 (Sunday), 3pm

It’s almost impossible to get everyone to laugh at your jokes, and this fact proved evident for the most part at Mark Lee’s 100-minute stand-up comedy performance on June 14 at the Drama Centre Theatre.

The “heartlander” comedian appealed more to the middle-aged crowd, using a mixture of English, Mandarin and dialect to poke fun at various government policies, Ah Beng culture, and recent headline news such as the Indian rojak incident.

While the jokes told in Mandarin drew laughs from the majority of the audience, the younger theatregoers were left scratching their heads when Lee made wisecracks in Hokkien, while members of the older generation sat uncomfortably in their seats when Lee related detailed accounts of his sexual exploits with his wife in their attempts to have a baby.

All in all, the veteran actor and comedian deserved applause for his bold attempts at milking the laughs from such a diverse audience, but to appeal to the younger lot, he should brush up on his language skills and leave his moral lessons at home.