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Mark Thomas is a comedian, an activist and a thinker. He chatted to Victoria Nangle– at a time when everyone was going on about phone-tapping – about political unrest at home and abroad, his new show and wild asparagus. The London riots were still to come after this conversation

pic: Idil Sukan

VN: Yeah, it was such good fun.
MT: (Laughs) It was a laugh.

VN: Did you get any of them through?
MT: Well for me it’s about ideas, do you know what I mean? Ideas are really, really important, they’re the basis for all our actions, and for me it was a delight for me to have done something, like – we had all these things like saying we were going to invade Jersey and all of that, and shut down tax havens – and it’s an utter delight to see groups like UK Uncut suddenly emerge as these incredible grass roots, tax justice, non-violent direct action movements. It’s really exciting.
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From The Friday Night Project to Chatty Man, Alan Carr has won the hearts of telly viewers for his candour and good-natured cheek. Now he’s returned to his first love of stand-up with a brand new tour. He tells all to Victoria Nangle

It’s been four years since Alan Carr’s last stand-up tour, Tooth Fairy, but he hasn’t let the grass grow under his feet. With TV and radio shows of his own, Alan’s hardly shied away from the spotlight, but as he says; “People might have forgotten that I’m also a stand-up. If I were to leave a stand-up tour any longer, it would start to look like a comeback!”

There have been glimpses of his stand-up roots here in Brighton over the last few years, however, with his annual hosting of the Charity Gala to raise funds for the Sussex Beacon, opening the Brighton Comedy Festival each October. Last year’s spectacle showed he still had that je ne sais quoi on stage, as he joked around with the audience, delivering enough material to make up a whole extra set on top of his hosting duties. Well, he’d already set the bar so high the previous year with his antics in a dustbin on stage.

This year he may find it more difficult to make it down for the Gala, as he’ll be touring his brand new 33-date show Spexy Beast, which is why it only seems right that he kicks off the whole tour here in Brighton at The Brighton Centre for a four-date run. Practically a residency, it shows how much he likes it here and we like him. So now, down to the nitty gritty…

Your show is called Spexy Beast. Have you always loved your spectacles?
I hated my glasses but now I wouldn’t be seen without them (and also I couldn’t see without them!!). But at school I was also getting bullied for being chunky, being very camp, having an effeminate voice and having buck teeth so when I noticed my eyes going I was like ‘Goddamn, what next? Callipers?’ I love all my faults now – funny isn’t it? What I hated at school has become my trademarks. Weird. Read the rest of this article »

Jim Davidson marks his place in British culture as a comic apart from the crowd. Victoria Nangle finds out more

Everybody has an opinion on Jim Davidson. From his start winning New Faces in 1976, which led to his own TV show and from there to hosting The Generation Game when Bruce Forsythe stepped back. In 1997 Jim was named Showbusiness Personality of the Year by the Variety Club of Great Britain. Best known to many of a certain age for his partnership with John Virgo on the snooker game show Big Break, and in recent times for a less than salubrious exit from Hell’s Kitchen after abusive words were exchanged with fellow contestant Brian Dowling. Many consider his brand of comedy ‘old school’, the kind of stand up that ‘alternative’ comedy evolved to rebel against. But with ‘alternative’ now the mainstream is he now the actual alternative to ‘alternative’ comedy? Read the rest of this article »

Topping most comics’ must-see lists, US cutting edge funnyman Doug Stanhope talks to Victoria Nangle

VN: Regular subjects touched upon in your sets include abortion and terrorism. Are you drawn to controversial issues naturally, in terms of this is what interests you most when you pick up a paper, or do you like to court a response from the liberal audience?
DS: Controversial issues are always more interesting but I don’t create material about a subject I have opinion on just because it’s controversial. The most fun is having a point of view that the audience is generally against and presenting an argument that challenges their thinking. Or sometimes I just like a good fisting joke. Read the rest of this article »