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Concept
Mark Thomas
Summary
Mark Clifford Thomas (born 11 April 1963) is an English comedian, best known for the political stunts that he performs on his show, The Mark Thomas Comedy Product on Channel 4. Thomas first became known as a guest comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s. He describes himself as a "libertarian anarchist".
Mark Thomas was born in South London. His mother was a midwife and his father a self-employed builder (and ex-lay preacher).
Thomas was educated at Macaulay Church of England Primary School, Victoria Rise, Clapham until 1974, where his party trick was to recite the first verses of the four gospels from memory. He then won a scholarship to attend the independent Christ's Hospital School, where he attained O-levels and A-levels in English, history, and politics and economics. At school, Thomas was influenced by his drama teacher, Duncan Noel-Paton, and by Bertolt Brecht's play The Caucasian Chalk Circle, in which the audience's sympathies are swayed from one view of a political argument to the other; speaking of this to The Guardian in 1999, he said "I was amazed that a play could make you change your mind". In a 2016 interview, he stated that he became an atheist at the age of 12, and subsequently developed an interest in radical politics during his teenage years, including anarchism, Marxism and Trotskyism. He went on to be awarded a degree in Theatre Arts at Bretton Hall College. During his time at Bretton Hall, he made his debut as a performer, co-writing and performing satirical sketches at Wakefield Labour Club.
After graduating, Thomas subsequently embarked on his comedy career, initially supporting himself through working on building sites with his father. Thomas' early exposure to comedy was through watching and listening to Dave Allen, Steptoe and Son, The Goon Show and Tony Hancock; his biggest influence was hearing a recording of Alexei Sayle: "It was like someone had kicked the door in – just listening to that tape and thinking that someone could do this stuff".
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