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Tom Rosenthal’s Manhood is an incisive comedy show with a cutting edge

Tom Rosenthal: “Maybe I’m stuck in adolescence, I don’t know,” he says. All pictures: Idil Sukan

PLEBS and Friday Night Dinner sitcom star Tom Rosenthal is bringing his first-ever stand-up tour to Pocklington Arts Centre on March 14.

Manhood is truly comedy with a cutting edge, wherein Rosenthal will be “avenging the theft of his foreskin”, as he discusses how he has suffered psychological distress ever since he realised he had been circumcised as a child.

Tom, the Hammersmith-born son of TV sports presenter Jim Rosenthal, applies the use of graphs, statistics, playful jokes and rigid research to tell his story, having spoken to experts on the subject matter.

He may have a Jewish background, but he was not brought up to be Jewish and that was not the reason for the circumcision. He duly felt anger towards his parents, the aforementioned Jim and his mother Chrissy Smith, a former Newsnight producer, when he was younger.

“Most comedy shows will not be an hour about genital-cutting practices,” says Tom Rosenthal of Manhood

“Maybe I’m stuck in adolescence. I don’t know,” says Tom. “As soon as I found out what happened to me, I was just constantly searching for a reason that made sense of it and I’ve still not found one. That’s sort of the driving force of the show: going through all the justifications for it being allowed.”

He is not anti-circumcision, however. “If you want to choose to do it when you’re old enough, go right ahead. It’s like any other kind of body modification, like a tattoo or a piercing,” he says.

“But to do it to a child against their will when they cannot take the decision to take that back, it feels as if it’s against our human rights. I want prospective parents to watch my show. Have a nice night out. Laugh with the boy from the sitcoms with the big nose, but also go away thinking ‘maybe that’s not cool actually’.”

Best known for playing Roman Empire nerd Marcus in ITV2’s Plebs and the perpetually adolescent prankster son, Jonny, in Channel 4’s Friday Night Dinner, Tom has long wanted to do a stand-up tour. “The nicest thing about it is getting to meet the people who actually watch the TV programmes I’m in,” he says.

“I think the story of someone who is at odds with their body is something teenagers can relate to,” says Tom Rosenthal

“I’m also really proud of Manhood. It’s a show that I always wanted to make. It has a dual purpose for me. Obviously, I wanted to put on the funniest show that I can, but I also want fans to go away thinking about stuff which most people don’t really think about.

“It’s something that I think is slightly askew with our culture. I should add that this is not your typical comedy show. Most comedy shows will not be an hour about genital-cutting practices.”

After premiering Manhood at last summer’s Edinburgh Fringe and playing dates last autumn, Tom is touring from February 8 to April 9. “I’m really a molly- coddled actor,” he says. “It has surprised me how tiring live comedy is. Some of my friends seem to be able to walk on stage and just be themselves, whereas I’m always nervous. I have the utmost respect for all comedians. I guess, by comparison, an actor’s life is quite easy.”

The tour marks a new phase in Rosenthal’s career. Although he started out as a stand-up, becoming joint winner of the Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year Award in 2011 after graduating from London University with a Philosophy degree, acting has taken up most of his time since then.

“I’m really proud of Manhood. It’s a show that I always wanted to make,” says Tom.

“I was reluctant to call myself a comedian despite the fact that I did stand-up. I felt like until you’ve done a tour, you can’t call yourself a comedian. So, one semi-benefit of doing Manhood is that now I’m a little bit more comfortable saying I’m a comedian as I’ve gone to towns, people have paid money to see me and I definitely heard some of them laugh.” 

Although the subject matter of Manhood may be personal, Rosenthal believes the feelings of alienation he discusses are universal. “I’ve had quite a lot of teenagers coming and I think the story of someone who is at odds with their body is something they can relate to,” he says. “What makes it interesting though also makes it quite odd. The fact that you are watching a guy talking about his penis quite a lot.”

His Pocklington audience next week will discover more about Tom in his Manhood show, but for those familiar with his television characters, does he consider himself to be closer to Marcus or Jonny?

“I probably feel I’m more Marcus,” he decides. “He’s a neurotic schemer who thinks that he’s smarter than he is, whereas Jonny is a sort of teenage boy prankster. Ultimately though, if you combine the two, that’s my whole terrible personality.”

Tom Rosenthal: Manhood, Pocklington Arts Centre, March 14, 8pm. Box office: 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

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Here come the boys as Weller, Manford, Dommett, Sloss and Aljaz’s dance crew head for York Barbican

Looking ecstatic to be back at York Barbican: Paul Weller , booked in for November 3

YORK Barbican has a fistful of new shows going on sale on Friday: Modfather Paul Weller, comedians Jason Manford, Joel Dommett and Daniel Sloss and the dance extravaganza Here Come The Boys.

Weller, 61, has sold out his May tour and will go back out on the road for 19 British and Irish dates in October and November, playing York on November 3.

Jason Manford: seeking approval at York Barbican next February

Weller will play an acoustic set for the Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on March 25 as a special guest of The Stereophonics and his new album, On Sunset, will be released on June 12 on Polydor, his new label.

He performed previously at York Barbican in March 2015 and August 2018 and his last North Yorkshire gig was at Dalby Forest, near Pickering, last June.

Joel Dommett: new show in December

His autumn travels also will take in further Yorkshire dates at Hull Bonus Arena on November 2 and Bradford St George’s Hall on November 17.

Jason Manford, who reached the final of ITV’s The Masked Singer this winter, will return to York Barbican in almost a year’s time, on February 17 2021, with his new stand-up show, Like Me.

Expect “observational comedy mixed with comic gold” from the Salford comedian, presenter and actor who chalked up three Barbican performances of his Muddle Class show in October 2018 and March 2019.

Smoke alarm: Daniel Sloss will be full of Hubris on October 3

Rockhampton comedian, actor and presenter Joel Dommett, host of The Masked Singer, will play York on December 11, delivering a new show after this 2016 I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here runner-up brought his Live 2018 tour to the Barbican in February that year.

Scottish comic Daniel Sloss will follow up his X show – taken to 40 countries, including Russia – with his new solo outing, Hubris, booked in for his Barbican bow on October 3.

Here come Michael, Aljaz, Pasha and Sam on June 24

Strictly Come Dancing’s Aljaž Škorjanec sold out his last appearance at York Barbican and will return on June 24, joined in the Here Come The Boys line-up by former Strictly favourite Pasha Kovalev, West End ballet star Sam Salter and NBC World Of Dance champion and Broadway star Michael Dameski, from Australia.

Ballroom, Latin, commercial, contemporary, ballet, acro and tap all will feature in a show where the Boys will perform alongside dancers, gymnasts, tap dancers and more.

Tickets can be booked from 10am on Friday (February 28) at 10am on 0203 356 5441, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from Barbican box office.

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REVIEW: Anything’s possible in a one-liner when Milton Jones spies a gag

Hair-raising: Milton Jones on a spying mission at York Barbican

REVIEW: Milton Jones: Milton Impossible, York Barbican, February 22

THE whole point of camouflage is not to be spotted, but in his new guise as an ex-MI5 spy, Milton Jones’s gaudy military fatigues looked like they hadn’t slept for days.

As for his fuchsia, frilly dress shirt, it would have guaranteed he had absolutely no fuchsia in spying, if blending into the background were a requirement. Definitely a case of Milton Impossible.

Mind you, Jones’s attire was not the only sartorial talking point of Saturday’s triple bill. Support act Tom Houghton was gently settling into revelations of being the Honourable Tom – now that his ex-Army chief father, General Sir Nicholas Houghton, was a Lord and the Constable of the Tower of London – when he was distracted by a Technicolor nightmare of a shirt making an even louder exit down the stairs.

“You’ve missed nothing,” said Houghton, lobbing a comedy bomb after the escapee. “Except fashion”. Boom, off went the bomb, as if he were sentencing him to the Tower for a fashion crime.

Cheeky, charming, posh-boy fledgling comic Houghton went on to define the rules of rugby – a game of backs and forwards and going backwards and forwards – with a wit that outwitted the well-worn tea towel trying to explain the laws of cricket.

Tom, a hawk: Tom Houghton was quick to spot fashion crimes in the York Barbican audience

“I always love to help underprivileged children,” said Jones drily later, but Houghton, one quarter of the improv comedy troupe The Noise Next Door, needs no leg-up through entitlement. Check out his upcoming tour at The Basement, City Screen, York, on June 12 or The Carriageworks, Leeds, the next night.  

Before Hon Tom, Milton’s waspish “grandfather” had opened the show, entering with a trampoline as his mobility aide, and combining a flat cap with a dressing gown for a dressing down on the real meaning of assorted familiar road signs.

If you could imagine a hopelessly ill-prepared learner driver trying to wing his written test with wild guesswork, Milton’s grandad goes even further. Rather than being merely daft or surrealist, however, the new meanings actually make weird sense, and the world would be a happier place if they were true.

Although, in this city of cycling, cyclists might not have enjoyed his dig at them not recognising the meaning of a red light.

Post-interval, Jones returned, his shock of hair madder than ever at 55, to go with the aforementioned psychedelic dress code. Seventy-five minutes of the matador of piercing one-liners ensued, ostensibly on his spying past, but ranging far and wide, his timing deadly, his manner deadpan. (Ideal qualities for a spy, you might say).

From his last tour, the Kew comedian revived his droll Brexit commentary through the novel format of national flags engaging in sparring conversations, each seeking the last word, and no Jones show would be complete without a run of “my other grandfather” gags.

Before the tour, Jones joked: “At a difficult time for our country, I believe there’s a chance this show could unite the nation. Admittedly quite a small chance.” True, but Milton is comedy paradise found, and you wish more could see the world through his eyes. It is a lovely place to be, warmly knowing but not devoid of a child’s sense of wonder, playful, not cynical, absurd yet spot on.

If you missed Milton Impossible in York, your next mission, and you really should accept it, is to make it to Hull City Hall on March 18 or Leeds Town Hall the next night, 19.30 on the dot. Box office: hulltheatres.co.uk; leedstownhall.co.uk.

Charles Hutchinson

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“Who we think we are is not who we are,” says Mark Thomas in national identity show

Opinions this way: Mark Thomas welcomes you to his 50 Things About Us show

IN his new tour show, mischief-making activist comedian Mark Thomas is pondering “how we have come to inhabit this divided wasteland that some of us call the United Kingdom”.

On the road since January 23, the South London satirical writer, political agent provocateur, TV and radio presenter, journalist and podcaster is bringing 50 Things About Us: Work In Progress to The Crescent, York, on March 4.

“The Crescent has a certain ramshackle charm, and it’s run with absolute integrity,” says Mark, breaking away from cooking up a pot of a very British winter warmer, leek and potato soup, to take this interview call.

Introducing the show’s theme, he explains: “I was really struck by one thought: how on earth did we get to the point we’ve got to, and part of the answer is that we’ve never come to terms with who we are.”

Was he referring to the English or the British here? “Well, Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales; the United Kingdom includes Northern Ireland too, and it’s been England that’s driven the creation of the union,” says Mark, whose show combines storytelling, stand-up, mischief and typically well-researched material.

“All these places have a very distinctive identity and culture, and it defies this binary, simplistic definition.

“The Irish language was kept alive by Presbyterians when the English buried it, and now the Irish language is being taught by Unionist women on the Falls Road [in Belfast], so it’s a fascinating place that defies your normal expectations.”

“People say, ‘can’t you say something positive?’, but there’s a load of positives in there ,” says Mark Thomas of his new show

Mark notes how “English culture is seen as part of the British empire, when Britain was ruling the world with this bombast, without understanding the implications of that”.

So, it may be a generalisation, Mark, but why is that people think the abiding negative aspects of the British empire are defined by Little Englander characteristics, not British ones?

“That’s the weird thing. Scotland joined England in the union in a time of fantastic prosperity, so Scotland doesn’t get out of its role in the empire,” he says.  “It’s fascinating that it’s about England adopting the empire as its nationalist cause, with everyone else slipping off.”

50 Things About Us is billed as “a show about money, history, identity, art, tradition, songs, gongs, wigs, guns, bungs, sods of soil and rich people”, as Thomas picks through the myths, facts and figures of our national identities to ask how we have so much feeling for such a hollow land”.

Summing up his night of story-telling, stand-up and subversion as a “sort of funny national edition of Who Do You Think You Are?”, Thomas says: ” It’s another slightly odd show, a sort of sweary, History Channel with laughs and creative mischief. If you’ve seen my shows before, this one’s in the vein of 100 Acts Of Minor Dissent.”

As a work in progress, the list of 50 Things is not set in stone. “It’s always being added to. You always do that. You keep going ‘b****y hell’ when you discover new things,” says Mark. “I found out the other day we’re the only nation that doesn’t have its name on its stamps.

“We have a picture of The Queen, not even a picture, but a silhouette, and there’s a certain weirdness about that. We won’t even say where we are! We say, ‘here’s The Queen, we’re better than everyone else’.”

Thomas, 56, has made his mark down the years by stopping arms deals; creating a manifesto and bringing the winning policy to parliament; walking the entire length of the Israeli wall in the West Bank and setting up a comedy club in the Palestinian city of Jenin.

“Just looking at who we think we are, this idea we can stand alone is completely myopic,” says Mark Thomas.

He has hosted six series on Channel 4, alongside several television documentaries and radio series; written books; grabbed a Guinness World Record; sold out numerous tours; won awards aplenty; nabbed himself a Medal of Honour and succeeded in changing some laws along the way. 

In other words, he is a man of both action and words. How are his latest words going down on tour? “People say, ‘can’t you say something positive?’, but there’s a load of positives in there, like Britain being one of only five countries that doesn’t have a [codified] written constitution. New Zealand is one other, Canada another,” says Mark.

“We have the Charter of the Forest, our economic charter that came in in 2017, which recognises that idea of shared assets of the country [the charter re-established for free men rights of access to the royal forest that had been eroded by William the Conqueror and his heirs] .

“It was there for our mutual benefit and no-one else has ever produced anything like it. It used to be read out four times a year in church, when the squirearchy were at the front, the peasants at the back.

“It was the statute that remained longest in force in England, but they just got rid of it in 1971 [when it was superseded by the Wild Creatures and Forest Laws Act]. But it’s something to be proud of as part of our history; there’s an historic part of our character that, since 1217, says we have the right to run things for our common benefit.”

Where does Brexit fit into Mark’s exploration of who we are? “I think that notion that we are a country that can go it alone is really that characteristic of English exceptionalism, where we believe we’re different, we’re superior, because we’re the cleverer than anyone else, reckoning we won two World Wars and a World Cup by playing fair, which is nonsense,” he says. “Just looking at who we think we are, this idea we can stand alone is completely myopic.

“I’m not a great supporter of the European Union, but I did vote Remain reluctantly, as I don’t want a move to the far right, which is what we’ve ended up with.”

Mark Thomas’s Gilbert & George-style poster for his 50 Things About Us tour

Mark continues: “I’m a Socialist and I think massive changes are needed but when you ignore democracy [the Brexit referendum vote], it will bite you on the backside. If I were a Leave voter, I’d be b****y angry. This idea that people got it wrong, and we should vote again and again until we get it right is extremely patronising. The way they’ve been treated is pretty awful, though I’m not defending the far right.”

Why does Mark call Britain “a hollow land”? “The fact that masses of our history is ignored at the expense of our identity, like the history of the NHS…that sense of absence, because we don’t tell parts of our history, is wrong,” he says.

And now for the big question, after all Mark’s research, can he define who we are? “It’s an important question to answer, because we’re changing all the time, as a collective, as individuals, as parents, grandparents, how we see ourselves,” he says.

“Though interestingly, who we think we are is not who we are.” Let’s leave that thought hanging in the air, the perfect enticement to find out more at The Crescent on March 4.

Mark Thomas’s 50 Things About Us: Work In Progress tour also takes in further Yorkshire gigs at Sheffield Memorial Hall, March 1; Wakefield Theatre Royal, March 5, and Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, April 9.

Box office: York, 01904 622510 or at thecrescent.com; Sheffield, 0114 278 9789 or sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Wakefield, 01924 211311; Leeds, 0845 644 1881 or cityvarieties.co.uk.

Did you know?

Mark Thomas also broadcasts 50 Things About Us as a podcast.

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Jimmy Carr to make York Barbican debut in Terribly Funny show in the autumn

Jimmy Carr: York Barbican debut

JOKER Jimmy Carr is Terribly Funny. Or at least that’s the title the dry-witted British-Irish comedian, presenter and writer has behest on this year’s York-bound travels.

Isleworth-born Carr, 47, has just added a York Barbican date on October 25, in doing so making a crosstown switch for the first time from his regular York stamping ground, the Grand Opera House.

Not that the urbane stand-up putdown specialist is not booked into the Opera House too on his 2020 tour. He is. Carr will be Terribly Funny there first, on June 21.

Arch cynic Carr first played York in 2003 at the inaugural York Comedy Festival and The Other Side Comedy Club at The Basement, City Screen, making his Grand Opera House debut with Public Displays Of Affection in November 2004.

He returned in October 2006 and April 2007 with Gag Reflex; a one-off Repeat Offender in March 2008; two nights of Joke Technician in September 2008, one in April 2009, and a brace of Rapier Wit dates in September 2009, another in March 2010 and yet another two months later.

Jimmy Carr will be Terribly Funny twice over in York

Laughter Therapy brought Carr back for two shows in October 2010 and one the next April; next came four performances of Gagging Order, one in June 2012, two that December, one more in September 2013, and two Funny Business gigs in October 2014. The Best Of, Ultimate, Greatest Hits Tour sent him north in September 2016, October 2016 and June 2017.

His last public appearance in York was as a guest at the York Minster wedding ceremony of pop star Ellie Goulding and North Yorkshire-born art dealer Casper Jopling last August.

Terribly Funny contains jokes about all kinds of terrible things, says Carr: “Terrible things that might have affected you or people you know and love. But they’re just jokes – they are not the terrible things. Having political correctness at a comedy show is like having health and safety at a rodeo. Now you’ve been warned, buy a ticket.”

York Barbican tickets for Carr, the Channel 4 host of The Friday Night Project, 8 Out Of 10 Cats and The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year, are on sale on 0203 356 5441, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the box office. Grand Opera House tickets, 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.  

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“Fourth funniest” comedy duo Max & Ivan to fulfil Commitment at Selby Town Hall

Max & Ivan: Commitment to Selby

THE Guardian’s fourth best comedy show of 2019, Max & Ivan’s Commitment, will play Selby Town Hall on February 7.

“I’m delighted that Selby is the only Yorkshire date on their UK tour and am genuinely very excited to see the show in our little venue,” says Chris Jones, Selby Town Council’s arts officer.

“It’s one of the most talked-about comedy shows of last year, receiving a slew of four and five-star reviews for its Edinburgh Fringe debut, and an agent for an entirely different comedian told me last week that it was one of the best things she’d seen…and that doesn’t happen very often.”

Performed by comedy duo Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez, Commitment is the true story of how Max, as Ivan’s Best Man, attempted to reunite Ivan’s teenage band – Voodoo 7:2, the premier “art rock post-punk funk” group in mid-Noughties Liverpool – for one final gig.

“It’s a show about dreaming big, growing up, and trying – but ultimately very much failing – to make it in the band,” says Chris.

“Directed by multiple Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Kieran Hodgson, it melds fast-paced visuals – including a wealth of embarrassing adolescent photos – with razor-sharp gag writing, classic double-act dynamics and a smattering of virtuoso multi-character performances.

“At its heart, the show is a storytelling hour about Max & Ivan’s real-life friendship and the lengths Max will go to in order to pull off the best night of Ivan’s life.” 

Olesker and Gonzalez have performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival; the SXSW (South By Southwest) festival in Austin, Texas; UCB Sunset in Los Angeles and Brooklyn’s Union Hall in New York, as well as touring throughout Britain.

Among their past work is the super-show The Wrestling, where the world’s best comedians step into the ring and wrestle alongside enormous professional wrestlers in Edinburgh and Melbourne.

At last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, they debuted Max & Ivan’s Prom Night, an anarchic, interactive, 1950s’ high-school prom show-cum-party, to a sell-out, thousand-strong crowd in Assembly High, a purpose-designed location. 

Max & Ivan created, wrote and starred in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom The Casebook Of Max & Ivan, attracting such guest stars as Matt Lucas, June Whitfield, Reece Shearsmith and Jessica Hynes, as well as appearing in BBC Two comedy W1A as Ben and Jerry.

“Max & Ivan’s Commitment tour is one of The Times’s picks of 2020,” says Chris. “I’m aware that Max & Ivan are not yet household names, but I would love as many people as possible to catch this 8pm show.”

Tickets cost £14 on 01757 708449 or at selbytownhall.co.uk or £16 on the door from 7.30pm.

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What, again, Alan? Yes, Not Again, Alan! tour books third night at York Carrbican

Loud hailer ! Alan Carr announces a third night at York Barbican

WHAT, again, Alan? Tickets have sold so quickly for Alan Carr’s first tour in four years, that Not Again, Alan!, is now, Yes, Again and Again and…Again, Alan, at York Barbican.

Carr, ever-chatty son of former York City footballer Graham Carr, will play three successive Christmas nights in York, newly adding December 17 to December 18 and 19.

Tickets are on sale on 0203 356 5441, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office.

Since his last comedy travels, chat-show host Carr has “managed to find himself in all sorts of dramas”, apparently. Such as? “Between his star-studded wedding day and becoming an accidental anarchist, from fearing for his life at border control to becoming a reluctant farmer, three words spring to mind…Not again, Alan!” says his tour publicity. “Join Alan on tour as he muses upon the things that make his life weird and wonderful.”

Carr pile-up: Alan Carr to play York Barbican again and again and again

Not Again, Alan! will be Carr’s fourth UK solo show in four-year cycles in the wake of Yap, Yap, Yap’s 200 dates in 2015 and 2016, Spexy Beast in 2011 and Tooth Fairy in 2007. He last brought his chat, chat, chat to York on the Yap, Yap, Yap! itinerary on July 11 2015 at the Barbican.

Later this year, Carr will host Alan Carr’s Epic Gameshow on ITV, wherein five all-time favourite game shows will be supersized and reinvigorated for a new audience: Play Your Cards Right, Take Your Pick, Strike It Lucky, Bullseye and The Price Is Right. In 2020 too, Carr will return to the judges’ panel on the second BBC series of RuPaul’s DragRace UK.

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Not again, Alan? Very much again, Alan, as comic Carr confirms York Barbican gigs

Loudhailer! Alan Carr announces a brace of York Barbican gigs for December

HOW does joker Alan Carr feel news of his first tour in four years will be received?

By calling it Not Again, Alan!, the son of former York City footballer Graham Carr supplies his own answer as he announces York Barbican gigs on December 18 and 19.

Since his last comedy travels, chat-show host Carr has “managed to find himself in all sorts of dramas”, apparently. Such as? “Between his star-studded wedding day and becoming an accidental anarchist, from fearing for his life at border control to becoming a reluctant farmer, three words spring to mind…Not again, Alan!” says his tour publicity. “Join Alan on tour as he muses upon the things that make his life weird and wonderful.”

Tickets go on sale on Wednesday at 10am on 0203 356 5441, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office.

Not Again, Alan! will be Carr’s fourth UK solo show in four-year cycles in the wake of Yap, Yap, Yap’s 200 dates in 2015 and 2016, Spexy Beast in 2011 and Tooth Fairy in 2007. He last brought his chat, chat, chat to York on the Yap, Yap, Yap! itinerary on July 11 2015 at the Barbican.

Later this year Carr will host Alan Carr’s Epic Gameshow on ITV, wherein five all-time favourite game shows will be supersized and reinvigorated for a new audience: Play Your Cards Right, Take Your Pick, Strike It Lucky, Bullseye and The Price Is Right. In 2020 too, Carr will return to the judges’ panel on the second BBC series of RuPaul’s DragRace UK.

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10 QUESTIONS FOR GREAT YORKSHIRE FRINGE DIRECTOR MARTIN WITTS

Martin Witts in happier times at the Great Yorkshire Fringe. Picture: Steve Ullathorne

THE comedy is over for the Great Yorkshire Fringe after five summers in York, blaming “city-centre management” for the decision to exit stage left.

In a formal statement, founder and director Martin Witts said: “Our experience of sponsoring, curating and managing an event in this small city of ours has led to the conclusion that until a well-managed and efficient is implemented, a festival of our size cannot thrive and does not have a place in York.”

Here Martin, who also runs the Leicester Square Theatre and Museum of Comedy in London, answers Charles Hutchinson’s questions.

1.What made you take this decision, Martin?

“My patience with all the red tape ran out of time. It was the same things every year, no matter what you try to do to address the most critical things on the Parliament Street village green site. Access. Drainage. The licence. Security.  What we were required to do changed every year.

“Right from the start, there were frustrations. We wanted to start the festival in 2014, but it took a year to get the licence from the city council for Parliament Street.”

2.What would constitute a “well-managed and efficient city-centre management”?

“The City of York Council, Make It York and York BID are all involved in how the city centre is run. Everyone has great intentions, but there are too many chiefs, not enough Indians, and it’s got too complicated. That’s the frustration.”

3.Sean Bullick, managing director of Make It York, says he would “welcome the opportunity to discuss options with you to bring the event back”. Will you have that discussion?

“I had a meeting with Sean and Charlie Croft [assistant director of communities and culture at City of YorkCouncil] last year to say this needs to be resolved, but we still had problems at last summer’s festival with the drainage provision for the toilets.”

4. Last summer, some people said the ticket prices were high; some reckoned the quality of the newer acts had lowered; others felt the same names kept returning.  Your thoughts?

“We had no complaints about the festival content or the programming or the pricing. There were no negative comments from patrons on our social media and in the box-office day book. Indeed, only positives. The average ticket price remained the same.

“But there was a drop in audience numbers certainly, when the Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, running at the same time at the Castle car park, had an impact.”

5. Do festivals have a natural cycle, especially when the fickle world of comedy is prone to “the new rock’n’roll” going in and out of fashion?

“No, I disagree with that. Comedy always has a new audience and new acts. You only have to see the popularity of the New Comedian of the Year award we ran each year.

“Comedy is always changing, but people like to keep seeing their favourite comedian too.”

6.Emotionally, how do you feel about calling a halt to the Great Yorkshire Fringe after five years?

“I’m incredibly disappointed to be having to do this. You should see the messages I’ve had from the volunteers who worked for the Fringe saying it was the highlight of their career. It was the highlight of my career too.

“In an ideal world, if it had been easier, if there wasn’t the problem of the structure of the city-centre management, we would like to have continued the festival, but your patience runs out in the end when you want things to run smoothly.”

7. What did you achieve?

”We were committed to running the festival for five years and you hope that after those five years, you’ve covered your costs, broken even, and established yourself, which we had – and we proved Parliament Street could be a village green with shows and all the food and drink stalls.”

8. Would you consider taking the Great Yorkshire Fringe to another great Yorkshire city?

“No, absolutely not. I’m not planning to move it to Leeds. This festival was always designed for the city of York, the city where my family is from. York is the capital city of Yorkshire; the second city of the world.”

9. You say you will “continue to invest in the cultural scene of York”. In what ways will you do this?

“We’ll continue to do events in York, but not hold the festival, but do them in the spirit of the Great Yorkshire Fringe. We’ll probably have a year off but we’ll support The Arts Barge by doing a couple of things with them in York this summer.”

10. What else is happening in the world of Witts right now?

“We’re opening a scenery workshop in Pocklington, and I’ve bought the contents of the Goole Waterways Museum after it went into liquidation. We might look at doing something with antiquities and artefacts there.”

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Chief of mischief Mark Thomas has 50 Things About Us he wants to say on tour

Satire this way: mischief-maker Mark Thomas has 50 Things About Us he wants to get off his chest. Pictures: Steve Ullathorne

MISCHIEF-MAKING activist comedian, satirical writer, political agent provocateur, TV and radio presenter, journalist and podcaster Mark Thomas sets out on his 50 Things About Us: Work In Progress tour on January 23.

Among the 54 dates are The Crescent, York, on March 4 and Leeds City Varieties Music Hall on April 9 as the South Londoner combines his trademark mix of “storytelling, stand-up, mischief and really, really well researched material to examine how we have come to inhabit this divided wasteland that some of us call the United Kingdom”.

Thomas, 56, will be picking through the myths, facts and figures of our national identities to ask how we have so much feeling for such a hollow land. “Who do we think we are?” he ponders.

Mark Thomas: keeping an eye on the state of the nation

50 Things About Us is billed as “a show about money, history, songs, gongs, wigs, unicorns, guns, bungs, sods of soil and rich people, in the vein of The Manifesto-meets-sweary history channel”.

Thomas has made his mark down the years by stopping arms deals; creating a manifesto and bringing the winning policy to parliament; walking the entire length of the Israeli wall in the West Bank and setting up a comedy club in the Palestinian city of Jenin.

He has hosted six series on Channel 4, alongside several television documentaries and radio series; written books; grabbed a Guinness World Record; sold out numerous tours; won awards aplenty; nabbed himself a Medal of Honour and succeeded in changing some laws along the way. 

His Work In Progress tour also takes in further Yorkshire gigs at Hebden Bridge Trades Club, February 16; Sheffield Memorial Hall, March 1, and Wakefield Theatre Royal, March 5. Box office: York, 01904 622510 or at thecrescent.com; Leeds, 0845 644 1881 or cityvarieties.co.uk; Hebden Bridge, 01422 845265 or thetradesclub.com; Sheffield, 0114 278 9789 or sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Wakefield, 01924 211311.