COMEDIAN Mark Thomas’ now famous mix of standup, theatre, journalism and the odd bout of performance art has made him one of our oldest surviving alternative comics.

Often referred to as the ‘godfather of political comedy’ (amidst many other things), Mark has been performing comedy for nearly 40 years and will be at Launceston Town Hall on Saturday, December 7, at 8pm.

Mark was born in South London in 1963, he has an honorary doctorate from Bradford University and currently writes of The London Economic. He was a columnist for the New Statesman magazine for four years (although that might be five).

With a recentish step towards theatre in his last few shows, Mark is back to his finest stand-up form and anti-Tory sentiment in Gaffa Tapes as he sets out on the road this autumn.  

If you don’t know what Mark does, ask your parents. In his time, he has won eight awards for performing, three for human rights work… and one he invented for himself.

He has made six series of the Mark Thomas Comedy Product and three Dispatches for Channel 4, made five series of the Manifesto for BBC Radio 4, written five books and four playscripts, curated and authored two art exhibitions with artist Tracey Moberly and was commissioned to write a show for the Royal Opera House.

He has forced a politician to resign, changed laws on tax and protest, become the Guinness Book of Records world-record holder for number of protests in 24 hours, taken the police to court three times and won (the fourth is in the pipeline), walked the length of the Israeli Wall in the West Bank (that’s 724km), and generally mucked about trying to have fun and upset (shall we say) the right people. 

As part of his Gaffa Tapes tour, Mark will also be performing at The Poly in Falmouth on November 30, The Acorn Theatre on December 1 and the Levinsky Theatre, Plymouth University on December 6.

To book tickets to the Launceston performance, visit: www.tickettailor.com/events/comicalentertainment/1252243?