Mark Thomas is a comedian and activist from south London whose work has tackled social inequality, human rights violations and the arms trade. Born in 1963, he broke into standup in the mid-1980s and became renowned for his no-holds-barred political comedy. This overlapped with investigative journalism in his long-running Channel 4 series, The Mark Thomas Project, and his more recent stage shows, which he describes as a mixture of theatre, journalism and a little bit of standup. His latest show, Check Up: Our NHS at 70, runs at the Traverse, Edinburgh from 4-26 August, and transfers to London’s Arcola theatre in October.
Could you find much to laugh about in the current state of the NHS?
There are moments of reprieve in any situation, so yes. The way people work together is always really interesting and often quite funny.
What kind of research did you do?
I spent a month’s residency at NHS hospitals in London shadowing doctors, nurses and clinicians. That ranged from being in major trauma, when it all kicks off, to hanging out with the dementia nurses, who are utterly amazing. And I had a lovely old chat with a doctor who talked me through everything that could go wrong with me from now on in. Every day I’d learn something new.
Such as?
One of the interesting things for me is that actually we’re not the best [health service] in the world, like everyone says we are. We put an average amount of money in and we get an average set of health results out. That’s pretty shit for a rich country. I also spoke to Professor Michael Marmot, who did groundbreaking work on health inequalities and why some people live longer than others. Class divides, unemployment, anxiety through job insecurity – all of this affects people’s health.
Did you find any reasons to be hopeful?
My big discovery is that public service and duty – a very old-fashioned concept – is real and it holds the NHS together. The fact that people love the NHS and politicians are frightened to be seen to move against it is also really important. If we put money into health, health outcomes improve and people live longer. But if we live longer, there’s more of us and the NHS needs more money.
Do you think the current government has any grasp of that concept?
You’re asking me if the current government has a grasp of a concept! The government are caught on this Brexit lie about the NHS, that this money [the promised £350m a week] is somehow coming home. While actually, in terms of doctors and nurses, we are 90,000 short. So, no, they don’t have a fucking clue.
How do you feel about Brexit?
You try to find some positives, don’t you? The London property market has frozen, house prices are going down – that’s bloody great as far as I’m concerned. I was a reluctant Remain voter. I thought that if Leave won, there would be a massive increase in racism and we would get an extremely rightwing government. Which is kind of true. Then you’ve got Boris cavorting around like some weird fucking peacock. I support human rights, but I will make the exception for Boris Johnson, who should be publicly lashed in the street.
Does comedy have the power to effect change?
I always think art in whatever form can achieve some change. I love standups who challenge ideas. People like Shazia Mirza are just outrageously brilliant. Standing there talking about her dad who voted Brexit and he’s a first-generation immigrant, it’s really interesting how she flips and plays around with attitudes. She always tells people what they should hear, not what they think they should hear. I love that about art: you can bring the change into the room and that’s thrilling. We did a show recently called 100 Acts of Minor Dissent, where we worked with the employees of Curzon cinema to get the managers to change their mind over union recognition and the London living wage. Now that’s not bad for a group of ticket-clippers and a ragged, overweight, middle-aged ex-comic.
Do you enjoy being on social media?
I quite like the immediacy of Twitter, the fact that people find each other on it and these little communities grow. But it can also be absolutely infuriating. Sometimes you think, well if I wanted this, I’d walk into the shittest pub I could find and shout: “You’re all fascists.”
When you’re touring a show, what’s your solace?
Music. Playing the van stereo really loud. At the moment I’m listening to the new Kamasi Washington album – it is unbelievably good. I’m just about to get the new John Coltrane lost recording, and I’m also off to see Godspeed! You Black Emperor doing live support for a Canadian dance troupe. So it’s always a mix of jazz, rockabilly, weirdness and avant garde stuff.
For your last show, Showtime from the Frontline, you collaborated with two graduates of a comedy workshop you ran in the West Bank. What’s happened since?
The guys finished their tour at the end of April. The other night I was looking on Twitter and saw that they’ve set up a comedy club in Jenin, completely off their own bat, which is the coolest thing ever. I can’t tell you how monumentally happy I am that they set up their own independent club and are now busy taking the piss out of me.
