MARK THOMAS – EXETER CORN EXCHANGE – FEB 10TH
Comedy…its a funny ‘ole thing innit? Well yes, sometimes. Unless you’re Jim Davidson. In the right hands, it can also be a potent vehicle for social commentary and political satire. Veteran comedian and campaigner Mark Thomas is one such performer.
As demonstrated by tonight’s audience though, he is seemingly unknown and lost to anyone under 25. Which is a shame, given the apparent re-engagement in left politics by the younger voting demographic, fuelled by Jezza Corbyn. Although tinged with a certain amount of middle aged cynicism himself towards said ‘yoof’ (“pah…these young people, with their bloody ‘hope’ and their bloody orgasms”, he quipped) Mark Thomas ought to be a natural Corbyn-esque choice for their new found, Marxist mirth making needs. Perhaps all too distracted by Russell Brand’s seductively, sexed up, Nathan Barley approach to protest?
This current show ‘Trespass’ addresses Mark Thomas’ concerns over the creeping privatisation of public spaces and whilst a bit London-centric in its approach ( “Never trust anywhere that doesn’t have a night bus,” he chuckles) he describes recent playful escapades such as holding tea partys, punk rock gigs and loitering in front of “No Loitering” signs in Nine Elms. He also recounted with glee, drawing chalk public/private boundary lines on the pavement outside the RBS building and ‘rambling’ along them, back and forth, for hours on end, bucolically dubbing it ‘The RBS way’, always on the edge, yet immune from the overseeing corporation security guard jurisdiction.
Whilst these and his previous ‘100 acts of minor dissent’ – updated for us in the expletive spiced, first half of the evening – are all hugely amusing and provocative agit-prop tales, the show did come across a little like a mischievous ‘Secret diary of Mark Thomas, aged 52 and 3/4’. It endeared more than angered.
All credit must be given to him though for the unexpected Brechtian breaking of the ‘fourth wall’ at the end of the performance, when he invited the audience to join him on a satirical, pitch fork weilding, ‘Lynch mob’ to the council offices as an awareness raising, faux protest at the proposed public space protection order in Exeter. To this end, pictures were taken and fed to social media whilst the local press duly mis-reported.
More knowingly bias than the BBC but with better jokes, Mark Thomas educated, entertained and informed.
Kev Winser
(This review was written by one of the St David’s Hillbillies competition winners and the picture is credited to Paul Bull)