“If you don’t know what he does, ask your parents” is the strapline for Mark Thomas’s new show, Gaffa Tapes. I must admit initially my parents were much more familiar with his work than I was. But naturally I jumped at the chance to interview him ahead of Gaffa Tapes coming to York. As it turned out, students have a lot to learn from his extensive career and, I think, will enjoy his style just as much as our parents.
Mark Thomas has been performing comedy for 35 years, but he is far more than just an entertainer. He frequently combines stand-up with political activism, investigative journalism, human rights campaigns, has been credited with changing the law on tax avoidance and held the Guinness World Record for most protests in 24 hours. He made six series of the Mark Thomas Comedy Product for Channel 4 and is generally regarded for his up-front, bold style of comedy that often questions well-known individuals and corporations. In his new show, Gaffa Tapes, he makes a return to stand-up comedy.
I was naturally a little nervous to interview Mark, but I needn’t have worried– he is just as talkative and upfront offstage as he is in his performances.
What is the concept and inspiration behind your new show, Gaffa Tapes?
“I started doing stand-up again because I needed money!” We laugh – I respected the honesty! “Having said that, it’s a job I completely love. […] Really, the show is about where we are now, what’s happening now, what’s happening to the world.”
That leads me to my next question, which is that you take a lot of inspiration from current politics in your performance. Is that something we can expect in this show as well?
“Oh yeah, I mean absolutely. It’s very hard to avoid talking about politics. I’ve yet to meet someone who’s as apolitical as they might claim they are. There’s too much going on and there’s too much at stake to not be interested in politics.”
He mentions The International Medical Education Trust, a charity he is patron of. “IMET has two branches, one branch works in places like Uganda, and it’s really important, the work they do, which is about training people to the highest possible medical standard, so you get some of the greatest surgeons and medics in the world teaching people in the poorest countries. Which for me is thrilling.” He goes on to mention the work IMET does to support people in Palestine. “I’m extremely proud to be part of a group that works with people who are so committed and have such dedication to their community.”
It’s clear that political activism is something Mark is incredibly passionate about, and feels he cannot simply ignore, even whilst entertaining. “All of us are stuck in politics whether you like it or not, and my job is just to talk about it in ways which are exciting and puts things in different perspectives from the mainstream.”
I guess that’s the advantage of comedy: you can talk about difficult topics in a way that’s accessible to a wide variety of people.
“Yeah, I think so. For me, politics and comedy have always gone hand in hand, it’s not one or the other, these are our lives.” He mentions the time when he first started comedy. “This was in the miners’ strike. Earlier this year I went to perform at the 40th anniversary for the Nottingham striking miners. The room was full of energy… and an anger that the issues of pensions haven’t been resolved, you know, 40 years on and these guys are still fighting having gone through the most momentous defeat.”
Mark’s admiration for, and anger on behalf of, the miners is palpable. “These people are the heroes of the heroes as far as I’m concerned. You pick your side and you go out and bat for it and that’s it. And there’s no wavering. Of course, you can question things, of course you should automatically question things all the time. But you pick your side and you get out there and you fight.”
I think that’s something that will resonate with a lot of students. Do you think your time as a student shaped the way you perform now?
“Yeah, I loved it. I was the first person in my family to go to university so my dad was absolutely thrilled. It was a drama college so he was absolutely mortified, to him it was an affront to my manhood.” We both laugh. “What I loved about going to college is that I learnt so much. I had my head turned so many times.”
He speaks about a painting by Bruegel that changed his perspective on the idea of carnival entirely. “Those things have informed my thinking from that day onward. I loved being a student, I loved the fact that you can stay up until 3 in the morning arguing about Bertolt Brecht!”
I think a lot of people figure out who they are at university and work out where they align politically as well. Do you think that was the same for you?
“Yeah. I was at college during the miners’ strike, these were people up the road, do you know what I mean? These were friends and neighbours who were getting arrested. I remember when the strike broke out it was just up the road from us, so we did a collection, we went up there with the money and the beer, and we got on the picket line and all the miners were like ‘students, bloody heroes!’”
“I think once you’ve witnessed a community being subjected, not just to attacks by the police but by the press, by the Labour Party hierarchy, by the state… people forget that when the miners were on strike, they didn’t get any pay, they didn’t get any benefits. They weren’t eligible for those things. And the Tory government froze the miners’ money. So, any support the miners’ got was literally from collecting cash in the street. Once you experience something like that, it opens a door, there’s no going back.”
It is clear that Mark was greatly interested in local issues and activism during his time as a student. “I was as interested in that as I was the plays of William Shakespeare”, he says, laughing.
We’ve been speaking a lot about students, and my final question is do you have any advice to students interested in the entertainment industry?
Mark’s reply is blunt: “My advice is always to get up and do stuff. Don’t wait for people to go ‘Oh, here’s something’. Get up and do it yourself, write for yourself, create publications, find ways of communicating. I think that’s the most important thing, not to wait for anything to be delivered to you. That was the great thing about the comedy circuit for me, when I started doing it everyone was just getting up and doing it because they loved it. And there was no career structure to it.”
Mark has one final piece of advice for students: “Always be fucking wary of an internship”.
My chat with Mark was illuminating; he is clearly a performer whose performance has been shaped by the events he has lived through. It is no wonder he has been so successful in combining comedy with activism and investigative journalism: he exudes an authenticity that I’m sure is also apparent during his shows. I look forward to seeing his return to stand-up comedy later this month.
Writer’s Note: Mark Thomas’s new show Gaffa Tapes will be hosted at the Crescent Community Venue in York on 29 September 2024.
