One of our oldest surviving alternative comics, Mark Thomas, celebrates 40 years at the mic with new show

The comedian, writer and campaigner will look back on four decades of comedy and activism at Fareham and Portsmouth this autumn.

Mark Thomas has been ‘standing up’ for 40 years and here’s what he has done so far in numbers; performed comedy for 40 years, won 8 awards for performing, 4 for human rights work and 1 he invented for himself, made 6 series of the Mark Thomas Comedy Product (Channel 4), written 6 books and 5 play scripts, made 5 series of the Manifesto for Radio 4, made 3 Dispatches for Channel 4, sued the police (and won) 3 times, curated and authored 2 art exhibitions with artist Tracey Moberly and had 1 Guinness World Record for holding 20 protests in 24 hours.

If that’s not enough, he’s also walked 724km around the length of the Israel Wall in the West Bank, been credited with changing the law on tax avoidance, started a comedy club in Palestine with Dr Sam Beale and campaigned successfully for things like trade union recognition for cinema workers and getting multinationals to change their practices. You’re right, there’s more, but your attention is running out and we’re running out of space. So, let’s just say he’s generally mucked about trying to have fun and upset the right people…which he is really, really good at.

This is a taster menu of political and personal mayhem, jokes, rants and a state of the nation broadcast as he tries to turn ‘what the hell is going on’ into a cogent evening of stand-up.

Mark Thomas: 40 In Stand Up Years comes to Fareham Live on Thurs 29th October and Portsmouth's Wedgewood Rooms Sun 29th November.

For tickets, please visit https://markthomasinfo.co.uk/tour-dates/