Thomas wants us to watch this space
Comedian’s Trespass show was inspired by Kinder Scout protest
HE’S a comedian with a reputation for tackling big political issues and now Mark Thomas has set his sights on saving the UK’s public space from “corporate monsters”.
The London comedian will look at the ever-changing face of Britain and the privatisation of its public spaces in his new show Trespass when it comes to The Tron in Glasgow for a three-night stint on April 13.
The London comic returns to what he does best, investigative comedy, or as his daughter puts it, “doing bad things to bad people for the right reasons”.
“It is me doing what I normally do,” he says. “It’s about how our cities are being taken over by oligarchs, yuppies, gentrifiers and corporate monsters, and how public space is being privatised.
“It focuses on the rich taking over public space and creating sterile yuppie rat runs controlled by poorly paid security guards and obscenely paid estate agents.
“It’s about gentrification and corporatisation. It’s about how to enjoy and play in those spaces and claim them as ours. I still believe we can take over these places and claims them as ours.”
The show takes its inspiration from the Kinder Scout ramblers of the 1930s, who took part in a mass trespass in protest at walkers being denied access to areas of open country in England and Wales. However, Mark says the future his children face also played its part.
“I love the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass in the Peak District in Derbyshire in the 1930s,” he says. “The fact that some 500 young working class walkers decide to defy the landlords and the law by trespassing publicly and some of them ending up in prison for six months for the principles and practice of the right to roam is inspiring. The show takes inspiration from that and applies that to cities.
“It was also inspired by living in London and realising my children will never be able to afford to live here unless there is a monumental market collapse, the destruction of the housing market or a mass infestation of anarchist squatting Boris haters.”
Mark first came to prominence on BBC Radio’s The Mary Whitehouse Experience. But his Channel Four show, The Mark Thomas Comedy Project, really brought him to public attention.
The show combined humour with political activism, something Mark says is crucial in comedy.
“Comedy is one of the few places where freedom of speech allows us to say what we want,” he says. “Indeed it encourages us and expects us to do that.
“To quote my old mate and fellow comic Bob Boyton, ‘Comedy clubs and toilet walls are the last bastion of free speech’.”
The comic has been called a “general rabble-rouser” and an “alleged comedian” by the police, but Mark says his style of comedy is a dying breed. He says: “It’s a mix between stand-up, theatre, journalism and activism. You will not see stuff like this on TV any more. You would be hard pressed to find a copy of it live.”
Mark gave his new show its first airing at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2015 but he has assured fans it has evolved and changed since then. “I have annoyed more people and more annoyed people means more material,” he says.
The comic says he loves working in Scotland and has revealed he feels an affinity with the Scots crowd.
“Scotland has a political landscape that I have a lot in common with. We start with the premise that the Tories were, are and always will be our enemy. The north of England, Scotland and Wales have this in common.”
A regular at the Edinburgh Fringe, which is just five months away, Mark says he will focus on his next show and his children once he finishes his tour.
“Once I’ve finished work on this tour I will start work on the next show and introduce myself to my children.”
Mark Thomas, The Tron, Glasgow, April 13, 14 and 15.