When you're on your way to an trade fair, you don't expect to discover singing hippies chained to the underside of your bus.
Mark Thomas brought his comedy product to Nottingham with two sell-out nights at the University's Djanogly Theatre (23rd and 24th April).
His iconoclastic humour works because he really is there on the front-line - being arrested while making the rich and powerful look ridiculous. The last year's anti-war protests have given him a bumper crop of anecdotes on which to draw. Anyone who has been involved in direct action, or rubbed against the law for some other reason, will recognise the surreal events that occur when your universe collides with the one inhabited by policeman, magistrates and politicians. Having an arms dealer reprimand you with the statement "Look at the mess you've made" is pretty funny, but try looking at it from their point of view. When you're on your way to an trade fair, you don't expect to discover singing hippies chained to the underside of your bus. The MOD policemen at Menwith Hill were probably equally surprised to find themselves suddenly coated with confetti reading 'Fuck Bush'.
His iconoclastic humour works because he really is there on the front-line - being arrested while making the rich and powerful look ridiculous. The last year's anti-war protests have given him a bumper crop of anecdotes on which to draw. Anyone who has been involved in direct action, or rubbed against the law for some other reason, will recognise the surreal events that occur when your universe collides with the one inhabited by policeman, magistrates and politicians. Having an arms dealer reprimand you with the statement "Look at the mess you've made" is pretty funny, but try looking at it from their point of view. When you're on your way to an trade fair, you don't expect to discover singing hippies chained to the underside of your bus. The MOD policemen at Menwith Hill were probably equally surprised to find themselves suddenly coated with confetti reading 'Fuck Bush'.
His next target is Coca Cola. To publicise the human rights abuses that surround Coke plants in developing countries, he is asking for help to recreate the tooth-rotting corporation's posters from the 1930's. He is planning to display them in a London gallery to show the extent of Coke's collaboration with the Nazis. As long as Mark Thomas stays on the front-line, his mixture of comedy and serious comment will always be topical and highly entertaining. And the people who run the world will never be safe from ridicule.
www.mtcp.co.uk
www.mtcp.co.uk
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