"I think it's outrageous and it should be stopped.

Politics should never enter any sphere that involves children at all," Mark Thomas rants down the phone.

But Mark isn't talking about dodgy child labour laws or poverty. He's talking about those charity rubber wristbands that have taken over the playgrounds in the last few months.

"I just think they're too young for it. They need sweets, leave them alone," he says.

Are they just a pointless fashion fad, or are we witnessing the politicisation of the next generation?

"It's a stupid question," Mark spits. "I don't know, ask them. Some people buy them because they're fashion accessories, some people buy them because they think, yes, poverty is a bad thing. Some people buy them and find out more about the issues."

It's this kind of vicious ire, sprayed with a veneer of satire, that makes a Mark Thomas live show. If you've only seen his long-running Channel 4 series The Mark Thomas Comedy Product, that's Mark at halfthrottle.

"The first series we did was completely different from the last series," explains Mark.

"At first, we didn't know what we were doing - we just wanted to try stuff out and we ended up as accidental journalists.

"I'm not sure what the f*** Channel 4 thought they were doing. I thought they would cling to people like myself and Rory Bremner a little bit in that kind of 'look at us, we're providing our radical agenda' way, but what it does is just tick off the boxes for when the inspectors come round and go, 'Are you fulfilling your remits?' meanwhile shoveling out half a tonne of Big Brother."

In the end the joke wore thin and Mark resigned.

In the three years since MTCP finished, he has recorded a few one-offs for the channel as well as filing occasional reports for Newsnight. These days, comedy is the sugar coating for his political bile. Could he ever see himself leaving the stand-up circuit behind for a comfy desk job on Newsnight?

"No," he laughs. "Because the thing about people like Paxman is that they are incredibly sharp and they live and breathe for this battle with politicians and authorities. I wouldn't be able to do what Jeremy Paxman does."

Mark is politics' odd job man - a bit of campaigning, a bit of activism, a bit of stand-up. What exactly is his political role? "The great thing is I've never had a job description," he says. "That's a really nice thing."

But it must be hard to hold down a job if you're always attacking every single authority figure. Mark ums and errs for a while, before muttering quietly, "yes".

Starts 8pm, tickets cost £10. Call 01273 67331