In defense

You suspect you are a borderline SAD (seasonal affective disorder) sufferer when you take to voluntarily travelling twelve tube stops on the first GMT Monday evening to catch a show about international arms dealing. Misery seeking company shouldn't come at such an effort. And of this I was quietly concerned last night, until I became instantly riveted by Mark Thomas's show, As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela.

Thomas defies description. He says he used to be a stand-up comedian. Now he doesn't know what he is. Satirist? Campaigner? Underground informer? Probably all, and from a few rows back at the Tricycle Theatre last night, a pretty convincing Inspector Rebus look-alike, complete with bulbous eyes and attitude.

Thomas's show is basically a live edit of his recent book which tells of him posing as a potential arms buyer to find out how easy it was to obtain weapons banned under Government export controls. He has the air of an effusive friend in the pub who is bubbling over with enthusiasm to tell you about this wicked thing that happened to him last week. And like all good story tellers, Thomas's 90 fact-packed minutes could be trimmed, but he does have a lot to say.

Thomas has some great one-liners including when he describes one politician as "one of those modern Tories who is just a moisturiser away from a monocle and shotgun." But my favourite part was less about guns, and more about his fiendish plan to irritate the Charing Cross police by staging lone demos in Parliament Square at the expense of the "Brian Haw law", which demands that anyone holding a demonstration in the environs of Parliament Square must apply for a license.

Mark's next lone demo is on 15th November with permission forms due in 8th November. Anybody game? I plan to apply for a ban on those (still curiously creepy) live painted statue people.

Tickets for the Tricycle show are sold out, returns by phone only. 0207 328 1000.
Other future UK performance dates can be found here.