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INTERVIEW
​MARK STEEL

EVERY LITTLE THING’S GONNA BE ALRIGHT
UK Tour 2018
Palace Theatre, Westcliff
​16th March 2018
Mark Steel is remarkably chipper when we meet to talk about his new show, even though it’s about a miserable period in his life when Donald  Trump won the White House, Nigel Farage seemed to be running Britain, and to cheer him up his wife decided to leave him. 
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But as the show’s title, Every Little Thing’s Gonna Be Alright, suggests, the comic isn’t a man to be defeated by what life throws at him on either a personal or political level; our conversation is punctuated by laughter, and he talks about his optimism for the future.

Because Mark is an avowed Left-winger who writes a political column in The Independent, he is sometimes seen as a political comic, but he demurs. “I’ve got loads of burning issues to talk about on stage, but the first thing you start with is, What are the things I think are funny?

“There’s great comedy in things not turning out as you expect. For example, regardless of your politics, you have to be amused that someone so magnificently confident calls an unnecessary election and mucks its up. Now Theresa May can’t even make a speech at her own conference without spluttering like a really useless kid in a Nativity play. And they [the Conservative government] don’t know what they’re doing from one day to the next. That’s funny, isn’t it?”

The show also charts his wife of 11 years divorcing him. They underwent “mediation” to divide their financial assets and Mark vents his spleen. “The way that marriage, or rather divorce, is organised in this country is mad. You’re better off under some sort of Sharia system,” and then hoots with laughter at the thought.

Some of his wife’s grounds for divorce lend themselves to comedy: he never cut the privet hedge (not a euphemism); he hadn’t trained the dog; he went on tour (he is a comic after all); and he is obsessed with sport. So is he? 

“Guilty as charged,” Mark admits. “There was one night I said, “I’m coming up to bed in a minute, but then realised, ooh the fencing is on.” He deadpans in his defence: “It wasn’t just any old tournament, it was a regional final – Hungary versus Italy.”

I ask if everything is material for a show. “No, that makes it sound mercenary. But everything in life has a funny side to it. It doesn’t cheer you up or make you laugh, but you know it’ll make an audience laugh because they recognise the truth of it.”

The show is not about him putting his side of things. “That would be unfair. It’s about the process of what happens when a marriage goes wrong. It seemed idyllic, our suburban life living just outside Brighton, and then this happened; someone’s furious with you and everything falls apart.”

He melds the personal and the political in the show. “In mediation, everything is brought down to the cost of things. It encourages people to be unpleasant and greedy, and it struck me that it’s the same philosophy that’s driven the world over the past few decades. So education, libraries, health and social care all have to have a financial worth; everything is reduced to whether it has a value that can be worked out on a calculator.

“The kind of people who say, ‘Why should I pay for a fire brigade when I’m not on fire?’ or ‘Why should I pay for someone else’s dialysis if they can’t be bothered to keep their kidneys scrubbed?’; have had everything their own way for decades.

“But if you think the railways ought to be run for the people who use them rather than making a failed balloonist extremely rich, this is an exciting time. Ideas that have been on the back burner for 30 years are now on the agenda. Young people really do believe that we should look after the old and sick, and I think that’s optimistic and encouraging. 

“I’m not trying to win people around, but I think the demonisation of Jeremy Corbyn is so mental that it’s funny – I struggle to come up with worse things in the show than the right-wing press say about him, like he’s going to introduce women-only gravity, so men are forced to float, or something.”
The comic’s audience is a broad church. Many listen to his long-running Radio 4 show, Mark Steel’s In Town, but he also has a younger following from the short films he posts on YouTube, and his amusingly waspish Twitter feed.

Twitter is both a vexation and a source of amusement. “There is not one single selection of words that you can put on Twitter that someone wouldn’t go berserk about. If I tweeted, ‘Im enjoying a beautiful sunset in Dorset’, I can guarantee someone would reply, ‘Not so beautiful if you suffer from sunset aversion in Dorset syndrome. Have a thought for SADS sufferers, Mark.”  He doesn’t get into Twitter spats – “You’d be there all day if you did” – but enjoys seeing “the large number of faux liberals on it moaning because someone uses the wrong word for trans people, or Benedict Cumberbatch said something offensive to otters”. 

Some of his views may surprise you – “I don’t condemn people who voted for Brexit, as some do. I don’t think they’re all idiots and I can see why they came to that conclusion” – and even admits to a certain regard for the Queen after learning of her disagreement with Margaret Thatcher over apartheid. “I don’t wish ill on anyone, but Philip’s not going to go on for ever, is he?” he says with a grin. “And if she needs a shoulder to cry on...”
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Mark is now living in London with his son, Elliot, 21, who is also a stand-up, and his 17-year- old daughter. “I’m quite chirpy at the moment. I rang home the other day and Elliot was doing the washing and I thought, ‘Ah, life’s nice, isn’t it?”

Interview By Veronica Lee
Further information & tickets for Southend go online to www.southendtheatres.org.uk or call the box office on 01702 351135
For other venues: 
www.offthekerb.co.uk  www.marksteelinfo.co.uk

Twitter:  @mrmarksteel @offthekerb
TOURING SCHEDULE:

FEBRUARY:
Friday, 9 February 2018    Loughborough    Town Hall    01509 231914    www.loughboroughtownhall.co.uk
Saturday, 10 February 2018    Poole    Lighthouse     01202 280000    www.lighthousepoole.co.uk
Wednesday, 14 February 2018    Shoreham-by-Sea    Ropetackle Arts Centre 01273 464 440    www.ropetacklecentre.co.uk
Saturday, 17 February 2018    Hertford     Theatre    01992 531500    www.hertfordtheatre.com
Monday, 19 February 2018    Newcastle-under-Lyme    New Vic Theatre 01782 717962    www.newvictheatre.org.uk
Thursday, 22 February 2018    Chesham    Elgiva        01494 582 900    www.elgiva.com
Friday, 23 February 2018    Newbury    Corn Exchange    0845 5218 218    www.cornexchangenew.com
Saturday, 24 February 2018    Bangor    Pontio    01248 382828    https://www.pontio.co.uk
Sunday, 25 February 2018    Kettering    Lighthouse Theatre    01536 41 41 41    www.lighthousetheatre.co.uk

MARCH:
        
Thursday, 1 March 2018    Swindon    Wyvern Theatre    01793 524481    www.swindontheatres.co.uk
Friday, 2 March 2018    Nottingham     Playhouse 7.30pm     0115 941 9419    www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk
Thursday, 8 March 2018    Andover    The Lights    01264 368368    www.thelights.org.uk
Saturday, 10 March 2018    Oxford    Playhouse 7.30pm    01865 305305    www.oxfordplayhouse.com
Thursday, 15 March 2018    Bury St Edmunds    The Apex    01284 758000    www.theapex.co.uk
Friday, 16th March 2018     Westcliff-on-Sea    Palace Theatre    01702 351 135    www.southendtheatres.org.uk
Sunday, 18 March 2018    Southampton    NST Campus 7.30pm    023 8067 1771    www.nstheatres.co.uk
Wednesday, 21 March 2018    Chorley    Little Theatre    01257 264362    www.chorleytheatre.com
Thursday, 22 March 2018    Glasgow    Citizens Theatre    0141 429 0022    www.glasgowcomedyfestival.com
Friday, 23 March 2018    Stockton     ARC    01642 525 199    www.arconline.co.uk
Wednesday, 28 March 2018    Northampton    Royal & Derngate    01604 624 811    www.royalandderngate.co.uk
Thursday, 29 March 2018    Dorchester    Dorchester Arts (Corn Exchange) 01305 266 926    www.dorchesterarts.org.uk

APRIL:

Thursday, 5 April 2018    Norwich     Playhouse    01603 598 598    www.norwichplayhouse.co.uk
Friday, 6 April 2018    Norwich     Playhouse    01603 598 598
Saturday, 7 April 2018    Harrow    Arts Centre    0203 773 7161    www.harrowarts.com
Monday, 9 April 2018    Bristol     The Lantern , Colston Hall    0117 203 4040    www.colstonhall.org
Tuesday, 10 April 2018    Bristol     The Lantern, Colston Hall    0117 203 4040
Wed, 11 April 2018        Bristol     The Lantern, Colston Hall    0117 203 4040
Thursday, 12th April 2018     Pontardawe    Arts Centre     01792 863 722    www.npttheatres.co.uk
Friday, 13 April 2018    Bradford on Avon    St Margaret's Hall    0800 411 8881    www.bathcomedy.com
Saturday, 14 April 2018    Redruth     Regal Theatre     01209 216278    www.regaltheatre-redruth.co.uk
Sunday, 15 April 2018    Exeter     Corn Exchange    01392 665938    http://www.exetercornexchange.co.uk/
Thursday, 19 April 2018    Peterborough     Key Theatre    01733 207239    
www.Vivacity-peterborough.com/key-theatre
Friday, 20 April 2018    Chipping Norton     Theatre    01608 642350    www.chippingnortontheatre.com
Friday, 27 April 2018    Tunbridge Wells    Trinity Theatre    01892 678678    www.trinitytheatre.net
Saturday, 28 April 2018    Monmouth    Savoy Theatre    01600 772467    www.monmouth-savoy.co.uk

MAY:

Saturday, 5th May 2018     Frome    Cheese and Grain     01373 455420    www.cheeseandgrain.co.uk
Sunday, 6 May 2018    Coventry     Warwick Arts Centre 
(The Goose Nest Theatre)    024 7652 4524
    www.warwickartscentre.co.uk
Thursday, 10 May 2018    Lincoln    Drill Hall     01522 873894    www.lincolndrillhall.com
Friday, 11th May 2018     Stamford    Corn Exchange    01780 766455    www.stamfordcornexchange.co.uk
Saturday, 12 May 2018    Barnard Castle    The Witham    01833 631 107    http://thewitham.org.uk
Sunday, 13 May 2018    Northallerton     The Forum    01609 776230    www.forumnorthallerton.org.uk
Wednesday, 16 May 2018    Hull     Truck Theatre 7.30pm    01482 323 638    www.hulltruck.co.uk
Thursday, 17 May 2018    Lancaster    Grand Theatre     01524 64695    www.lancastergrand.co.uk
Friday, 18 May 2018    Kendal    Brewery Arts Centre     01539 725 133    www.breweryarts.co.uk
Saturday, 19 May 2018    Darwen     Library Theatre    0844 847 1664    www.darwenlibrarytheatre.com
Sunday, 20 May 2018    Shrewsbury    Theatre Severn     01743 281281    www.theatresevern.co.uk
Wednesday, 23 May 2018    Milton Keynes    The Stables    01908 280800    www.stables.org
Thursday, 24 May 2018    Chelmsford    Civic Theatre    01245 606505     www.chelmsford.gov.uk/theatres
Friday, 25 May 2018    Margate     Theatre Royal 7.30pm    01843 292795    www.theatreroyalmargate.com

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  • Home
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    • Main feature writer - Kim Tobin
  • LATEST
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