Mark Thomas Biog – in numbers

  • Mark has been performing comedy for 35 years
  • He has written 5 books and 4 playscripts
  • Curated and authored 2 art exhibitions with artist Tracey Moberly.
  • Won 8 awards for performing, 3 for human rights work and 1 he invented for himself
  • He has taken the police to court 3 times and has won twice. The third is on going and a fourth is in the pipeline
  • He made 6 series of the Mark Thomas Comedy Product for Channel 4
  • He made 3 Dispatches for Channel 4
  • He was commissioned to write 1 new show for the Royal Opera House
  • He has made 5 series of the Manifesto for Radio 4
  • He was a Guinness World Record holder for holding 20 protests in 24 hours
  • He has given evidence to Parliamentary select committees on 2 occasions
  • He has walked 724km around the length of the Israel Wall in the West Bank
  • He has been credited with changing the law on tax avoidance bringing in £1,000,000s for HMRC
  • He has performed in 4 continents and in 10 countries, 1 liberal synagogue, a squatted MP’s second home, on the roof of a multi-storey car park and outside a US military base.
  • He has performed 4 shows at the National Theatre
  • He has cost 1 councillor and one government minister their job
  • He has tried to get the government in court over the Iraq war once
  • He cost BNF over £1m in clean up operations after exposing irradiated pigeon shit
  • He was a columnist for the New Statesman magazine for 4 years though it might be 5.
  • The 100 Acts of Minor Dissent campaigned successfully for trade union recognition for cinema workers, got a multinational to change their practices, brought 4 court cases and annoyed lots of people.
  • He started a comedy club in Palestine with Dr Sam Beale.
  • How to describe his work? A mix of standup, theatre, journalism and the odd bout of performance art. He is 57 years old and doesn’t care if it sounds pretentious.
  • He has an honorary doctorate from Bradford University and is an online pastor legally able to perform weddings and funerals in America.
  • He writes for The London Economic currently.
  • He was born in South London in 1963.