Chat with comedian Mark Thomas ahead of 3 Lancashire gigs

Lancashire Post

Comedian Mark Thomas is performing in Chorley, Darwen and Lytham St Annes in October, take a look at our exclusive chat with him here.

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm digital reporter Amy Seddon and earlier this month I was able to chat to

00:05the comedian Mark Thomas who is bringing his show Gaffer Tapes to Lancashire

00:10three times in October. Mark is heading to Chorley Theatre on October the 2nd,

00:14Darwin Library Theatre on October the 3rd and Laufer Pavilion on October the 5th.

00:19So take a look at what he had to say before his Lancashire performances in

00:23the following clip. We're obviously speaking today because you're about to go on tour

00:27again with Gaffer Tapes. So Mark, can I start by asking you what is Gaffer Tapes

00:32about? It's a show which is me going back to stand-up roots and basically

00:39screaming about anything that's inside my head at the moment and especially

00:43what's going on politically and socially and for my love life as well. So what can

00:49audiences expect from it? Oversharing. They can expect rants and poetry but by

00:55poetry I mean limericks, jokes, there's loads of jokes and proper full-on attack

01:01upon anyone in power. You said that this was you returning to stand-up roots and

01:07it is coming after a hiatus so why? Why have you come back to doing stand-up

01:12shows? A couple of reasons. First one being that I did a theatre show last

01:22year called England and Son which I'm very proud of and we won six awards. We

01:27toured it all over the country. We took it to jails. In fact now if you want to

01:31see the show that's the only place you'll get to see it is if you're in

01:33jail. We took it over to Australia and performed in the Adelaide Festival, all

01:39of that and I've got nothing. I've got no money. I've got absolutely no money.

01:43There's no money in theatre whatsoever. So I'm skint. I'm totally, totally skint and

01:51so I thought I'll go back to stand-up to make some cash. That's one of the

01:56reasons. The other is actually this was my first love. I've always wanted to, I

02:00always said I wanted to die a stand-up. You know I mean this is what I loved

02:07doing. I adored it from from day one. I've been doing it now for well I think it's

02:1439 years. Next year, yeah next year will be 40 years which is kind of quite, it's

02:24quite an interesting thing to to look back and go oh I've managed to avoid a

02:30proper job for nearly 40 years. It actually involves a bit more work than

02:34you think it does. You know it's hard work doing nothing. So I love stand-up. I

02:41always have loved stand-up. I love seeing good stand-up. I love seeing

02:44stand-up that excites me and takes me somewhere different and I love seeing it

02:48when you get new comics on who are and there's loads of really good new comics

02:52so you just go this is amazing. You're bringing it to Lancashire and so how are

02:56you feeling about that? Well I like Lancashire bizarrely. Well I mean even if

03:03I didn't I wouldn't say I don't. One because it's slightly rude and two

03:07because I want people to come but I think I mean it's really for me touring

03:13around the country means I get to go to a lot of interesting places because

03:17I've done this for so long. I've got mates who I see at every gig. I'm doing a

03:23gig in Chorley very soon and I've already had a contact from someone who

03:27comes to my shows going I've got you a jar of pickled eggs ready for your gig.

03:30Isn't that lovely? Someone's gonna bring me a jar of pickled eggs. I think that's

03:34brilliant. People in Lancashire why should they buy tickets for either of those

03:39three shows? Why? Why? Because I've been doing it for long enough not to fuck up.

03:46Are you promising them a perfect show you mean? Every show is a perfect show.

03:51Look every show should be unique. Every show should be exciting and

03:57should connect in a real proper way with the audience. Yeah you don't come

04:03along just go right I'll knock it out and then fuck off. You know the whole

04:06point is to do a show that's really exciting as of the moment. Stand-up the

04:10great thing about it is it's like jazz. It is never the same twice. It should

04:15actually be about improvising a new material and actually creating new

04:20things and that's the brilliant thing about it. If you just want to go

04:24and see a recitation go to the theatre.

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