Do any of you also find David's delivery "forced" and unnatural?

TV is a very difficult medium to look good on, particularly when you
are dealling with a show that has to fit into half an hour with three
commercial breaks with trailers and recaps at each break.

The main problem seems to be when he does a voice over, he looks pretty
stiff except when he is doing some woodworking.

Someone posted saying that he blames the jokes on the producers, sounds
to me as if they are trying to get him to copy Norm's act. Its the
director's job to make the actor feel comfortable and give a natural
performance, it sounds to me as if the director is incompetent.

From a purely technical point of view Norm tends to get a bit
breathless at times.

Norm does not attempt to do work in a particular style, Marks does.
This has advantages and disadvantages. There is almost nothing that
Marks does that I could use in my current house which is a 1900 dutch
colonial. Almost everything Norm does would either work as is or could
be adapted for some part of the house.

The other constraint is the SWMBO factor, the Marks stuff does not
appeal to her, Norm stuff is much more likely to.

The original idea behind Norm's show was to get people doing woodwork,
Marks might have that idea but I don't think the producers do. Norm
deliberately uses a range of materials over each season which is very
useful if you are thinking about doing the maple sideboard in teak and
can watch the program where he is making stuff in teak and find out
that it wrecks your jointer knives etc. Marks on the other hand uses a
much more limited range of mostly exotic, mostly solid woods and rarely
uses any finish other than tung oil.

Of course Norm having by now made everything there is to make out of
plywood, he has gone for bigger projects of late and this season did a
lot of antique reproductions where the wood alone would cost several
thousand dollars. I was somewhat surprised that he made the mahoghany
dining table out of solid wood, a veneer top would be much more
economical and add considerably to the piece. Of course this is just
about the one woodworking skill that Norm seems to avoid while Marks
thinks nothing of getting out his vaccum bag and cauls.