Mark Steel: Isaac Newton

From his DVD Vive La Revolution

More Mark Steel videos

Mark Steel has performed as a stand-up since 1983. For Radio 4, he has written and performed four series of both The Mark Steel Solution and The Mark Steel Lecture, which transferred to BBC4.

Mark has also hosted the BBC Radio 5 sports programme Extra Time, produced a weekly column for The Guardian and now does so for The Independent.

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I think Ted Democrat misses the point, though I suspect, he's a staffer at the Conservative Party Central Office. By the way, Ted, Mark Steel is no longer a Trotskyite. He left the SWP years ago. Try keeping up. I find Mark refereshingly funny in an age when most comedians can't be arsed to do anything other than tepid observations of things that they saw on the way to the supermarket.

Riera, May 2010

Trotsky massacred his own men at Kronstadt. He was involved in many other Bolshevik mass slaughters. Frankly, he was a psycho. Why the BBC - in promoting Mark Steel - say some 20th century psychos are unacceptable (Mussolini, Hitler) whereas others (Trotsky) are cool, baffles me. The BBC are a moral joke and should be dismantled. The guy at the top of BBC Trust (Michael Lyons) charged with making these moral calls last year took expenses of £68,500. Probably had Steely round to discuss Kronstadt over lobster...

Russian Justice, February 2010

Did the previous reviewer click the wrong button in the Mail-Online unintentionally funny knee-jerk comments section, perhaps? If Mr Democrat can bring himself to cast aside his Enid Blyton Guide To Soviet History, I highly recommend Mark Steel's 'Reasons To Be Cheerful', which (giving due credit to Tony Cliff) corrects this laughably (!) erroneous view of Trotsky (ever heard of a guy called Stalin, Ted?), with Steel's typical mix of wit, political incisiveness and auto-didactic erudition.rnrnNote to Andy (July, 2006): Mark Steel was doing reasonably priced incisive political comedy several years before you and your proto-emo mates handed over six months’ pocket money to hear Rob Newman doing knob gags in Wembley Arena.

Steve Ellis, February 2009

As an open and avowed Trotskyite, he supports the forced Collectivisation which resulted in up to 20 million deaths in the Soviet Union. Were he a Nazi apologist supporting the deaths of 6 million in the Holocaust, he would have no place within the BBC. Surely the BBC should sack this apologist for mass murder?

Ted Democrat, February 2009

Watched Mark's show at the Brewhouse in Taunton tonight and thought it was fantastic. Mark strays somewhat from the usual topics of modern comedy with his show based around the French Revolution but it works brilliantly. He is able to bring the historical period alive in a way which is laugh out loud funny whilst not in any way excluding the less academic. If history at school were taught this way I might have turned up once in a while! Mark also puts in the homework on his venue, introducing a local flavor to his set. He also interjects relevant modern tales and topical threads in to his historical dialogue - drawing funny comparisons between history and today and using his vast range of excellent regional accents to add even greater comedy effect. A brilliant night and the best way I can think of to spend 14 quid!

Rebecca, December 2007

I saw Mark in Huddersfield on 11th October 2007, and he was truly brilliant. I love comedy and see as much of it as I can, but he was, genuinely, the funniest comedian I have ever seen live. I am not saying that there aren't better comedians on the circuit, but because of a lively audience, and that fact that he was 20 minutes late, the French Revolution' theme was completely discarded and it ended up being over three hours of him bantering with the audience. Truly amazing, very intelligent and incredibly funny.

Ricardio, October 2007

Not "Reasons to be Cheerful" but reasons for living. You restore my faith in human nature. Today's Independent article shows that there are people concerned with another view on life. Hurray. I may be 70 odd but I'm with him on this.

B R Meadows, July 2007

One of the best comedians I have ever come across, he is funny and insightful, much more intelligent that he likes to give himself credit for. I don't see how someone can say, "he doesn't mean it", this man has been a dedicated socialist (hardly "liberal left") and a member of the Socialist Workers Party all his life and has never been afraid to admit it. He even describes himself as "a Trotskyist, but not mad honest".

Scott Bronstein, October 2006

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