Can stand-up comedy do politics better than politicians? Mark Thomas certainly thinks so and is generating plenty of giggles while proving it.
His latest interactive show, The Manifesto, playfully invites his audience to suggest new laws, the nightly winners to be debated by GLA members after the run, albeit strictly for fun. Who knows? Perhaps free umbrellas for all, as floated by a fan on Saturday, could eventually reach the statute books.
This master of the right-on prank is a persuasive talker, even if he does have a tendency to make his gigs overlong. For every proposal offered he rattled out his own alternatives. Thomas wants to stop tax loopholes for the rich, which is fair enough.
Maybe his initiative that we invade Jersey is more contentious, although he added that an easy victory, stopping off on the return from Afghanistan, would do wonders for national morale.
The audience followed his lead with a similar mix of stupidly serious and seriously stupid ideas, from criminalising driving children to school to cancelling the Olympics and forcing runners to race at home to keep carbon footprints down.
Saturday’s unanimous victorious motion, however, was banning MPs from lying. Surely even the most slippery of GLA members will find it difficult to argue against that.
Until 3 October.Information: 020 7328 1000. www.tricycle.co.uk.
Mark Thomas: The Manifesto
Tricycle Theatre
Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR
