Hello and welcome back to the Queerest podcast telling the
fiercest Stories. This is queer Talker and I'm Ben
Cicchetti. This week I sit down with stand
up comic and social media influencer Mark Biddlestone.
Maybe I had like a nascent awareness of my sort of
burgeoning sexuality, but I was like, whatever happens, I do not
want to be gay. Whoops.
OK, that didn't work out. Yeah, spoiler alert.
But I spent sort of 10 years in the closet, afraid to be who I
was. So it's you.
You forget how far you've come if you're then happy to do loads
of stupid reels about it. My mum died a week before my A
levels and then my dad died like 2 weeks before my university
finals. I was like, guys, can we do we
have to having, you know, free Palestine in my bio and and
speaking out about it a lot was probably it meant meant I was a
sort of no go for quite a lot of brands.
But you know, I think when stuff is important to you and and you
look back and you think like, how could I have done nothing?
Mark, we will break the ice with our Queer panic rapid fire set
of questions. You just respond with the first
thing that comes to mind, starting with what was the first
album you ever owned? I think it was White flag by
Dido. Wow, that's awesome.
Bought it, bought it from HHMV in Wimbledon.
Said it's a banger. It's a it's a real banger.
Yeah, that's a classic. I love that.
If you had to lip sync for your life, what song would you
choose? Oh, maybe left outside alone by
Anastasia. Wow, Yeah, I.
Think. That'll be a lot I.
Think I know that pretty well, yeah.
OK, who was a childhood celebrity crush of yours?
Orlando Bloom as Legolas in Lord of the Rings?
Definitely. Yeah, yeah, Two towers when he
slides down on the shield, like, yeah, I can, yeah, real energy
there, yes. Please.
Yeah. What is your biggest red flag?
Maybe guys who take themselves too seriously.
Yeah, maybe that. I feel like you couldn't date a
comedian and then try and take yourself too seriously, right?
Like it's going to be fun, so. Yeah, it's just a bit.
It's like, come on, we're on a rock spinning through space.
Just chill out. That's bad.
Speaking of dating, do you have an embarrassing dating story
that you're willing to share with our listeners?
Do I have an embarrassing dating story?
I mean, I must do. I've, I've cut dates.
Pretty sure I don't know what the shortest you've done or
people have done. I've done like a 40 minute.
Yeah, wow. Wait, you just knew this isn't
right. Yeah.
So I don't know what like this is.
This is not, we obviously haven't done our due diligence
because this is not working. This is not, this is not
working. I've also like, and I think this
maybe speaks to the sort of the, the incestuousness or the small
size of the sort of, you know, London sort of, you know, urban
sort of going out, quit population, whatever.
But like, I've, yeah, been on dates where, like, it's emerged
that like I, we've basically slept with each other's exes.
OK, you better turn off. Yeah, it actually was.
It was a it, it was a yeah. It was a bit of a then a dead
end because yeah, yeah, yeah. I can appreciate that.
Yeah. Suddenly I'm not missing the
dating life. It's.
It's interesting. Totally, totally.
What is your favourite queer movie or TV show?
The Queer as Folk is so great because it's so.
They're all the characters so vile.
Do you know what I mean? I think like, I understand the
move towards like positive queer narratives, but positive stuff
isn't that funny a lot of the time.
And so, yeah, cruise folk, cruise folks, great.
But, and do you know what though?
I only watched Brokeback Mountain like last year.
And I think funny enough, the reason it took me so long to
watch it is because growing up, that was such like, a byword for
like, you're gay. Like at school, it was always
like, oh, what did you watch this weekend?
Brokeback Mountain? So I think I avoided it for ages
just because it was so laced with like, you know, the sort of
homophobia and, and, and it felt, it felt almost like a
cliche. Yeah.
Even though obviously when you watch it, it's a completely
beautiful movie. And I was in, I was in just
floods of tears. OK, confession.
I've never watched it. Like, I don't know why.
I don't know if it's for the same reason, but I now feel like
I have to do some homework and yeah, how can you?
I will watch it by the time this episode comes out.
How? Can you host this podcast and
not have seen Broken Mountain? I know the shame of it all.
OK, I will, I will fix that. Who is your ultimate queer icon?
Maybe Ian McKellen, good guy, good actor, does lots of he's
always, he's always on marches. He's often he's at.
He was at Roast the other day. OK, nice.
I mean, I wasn't there. I saw the photo.
Yeah, yeah. Let's, let's give a shout out to
Syrian. Syrian.
Yeah, Syrian. Well, Speaking of people, who is
one person? This is such a selfish question.
Who is one person you would like to hear me interview on this
podcast? Don't say Sir McCallum, because
I think that might be a stretch. Maybe Alan Carr?
He'd be amazing. He'd be amazing.
He'd be, he'd be, he'd be
completely amazing. Yeah, to discuss afterwards.
But if you've had, have you had Lee?
Have you emailed Lee Pierce or had Leon?
I haven't, no. Lee's a fantastic comic and
Lee's also really good mates with Alan and they're starting a
podcast soon, so should get Leon in in in his own right because
he's fantastic, but then sort of be like Lee.
Do you have to recommend me? Lee, you had such a good
experience. Yeah, yeah.
Lee, we did get you on because we wanted you, but also, yeah.
You happen to be friends, OK? Totally, totally.
It's a good shout. What is your proudest moment of
your career so far? I just did the in May, I did the
Killkemi Killkemi Kilkenny Comedy Festival, which is like,
you know, invite only just I met like all the acts is like maybe
all of Ireland and Northern Ireland's like biggest comedy
acts and it's just like staggering the talent on
displays to be invited to do that was was incredible.
So maybe that I think maybe just like performing at all these
clubs like top secret and the comedy store and the frog and
bucket and the stand where like, you know, I remember the first
time I did a lot of them. The first time I did, almost all
of them was in there like gong show capacity, which if
listening audience aren't familiar with.
It's like a lot of the truck, a lot of the way into some of
these clubs is you. You, you have these gong shows
where you go up and basically you have to survive 5 minutes
and if the audience don't think you're funny, they'll actually
gong you off. That's brutal.
So pretty brutal. But yeah, so I remember, you
know, with all of those clubs, that's how I started.
And you, you're there and you're literally so nervous and scared.
So then to be, you know, to be doing paid full paid weekends at
those clubs, you're like, wow, what you know, what a kind of
pinch me moment from from from where I was.
I think that's kind of cool. I think also another nice 1 is
when people say like people still come up to you and they're
like, I love your stuff. And also maybe I like kind of
like, I don't know, the you're just really, really easy in your
identity as a as a queer person and putting it out there
because, yeah, certainly, you know, obviously we've all been
on a journey, but I spent sort of 10 years in the closet, you
know, afraid to be who I was. So it's you.
You forget how far you've come. If you're then happy to do loads
of stupid reals about it. That's bad.
No, I think that's incredible.
Final of our quick panic questions.
What is one word you would use to describe your childhood?
Oh, my childhood was was really lovely.
Sorry. These are meant to be quick
fire, aren't they? It's.
All good. They rarely are.
Haven't. Haven't been quick fire at all.
Do, you know, my childhood was lovely, but I think it speaks
volumes that even in I grew up in like a liberal part of a
liberal country, like southwest London in, in, you know, the
90s. But it was still, you know, I
still felt the need to stay in the closet for like, a decade.
Pretty much, yeah. Yeah, OK.
Well, we can explore that a bit more because I'm super curious.
I always have this as long term listeners will know, I had this
theory that to understand an LGBTQ plus person as an adult,
which we all claim to be, you first need to understand them as
a young person. So what should I know about you
as a young person to understand the mark that sits in front of
me today? Yeah, I mean, first of all, I'm
a child of privilege for sure. Like I went to a private school
in southwest London, grew up in like, a big house in Wimbledon.
And not just like material privilege, but my parents lovely
and and emotionally available and help with homework and all
that kind of stuff. So I think it's crucial to the
foreground for discussions with that understanding.
But yeah, I think also that like, notwithstanding that, you
know, the 90s were, I don't know what a good time is, but like,
you know, homophobia was just still just an acceptable
language, you know, in in our house, which again, I say like,
it was weird because I guess my parents, you know, who voted for
Tony Blair, they would have considered themselves liberal.
And yeah, like the word gay was just was was was everyday as a
as an insult and like a few things they said that made it
clear that like, they would be OK if one of us were gay, but it
was not ideal. Right, right.
And then, yeah, I went to like all boys schools where, yeah,
again, like, I think the sad thing is this is a phrase I
often use. Like probably like my like the
earliest, really the earliest, one of the earliest memories of
like what what I wanted to be or what type of person I wanted to
be. Maybe like age 7 or 8, like was
I don't want to be gay, like right.
And that is such a crystal clear that had been drummed into me
from like the playground and like home, like all of my points
of reference were straight. And then everyone knew that like
being gay was just like dreadful, embarrassing, awful
thing. So kind of before I even had an
idea of what I wanted to do with my life, like lawyer or or, you
know, astronaut or whatever, it was like, I know.
And maybe I had like a nascent awareness of my sort of
burdening sexuality, but I was like, whatever happens, I do not
want to be gay. OK, that didn't work out.
Yeah, spoiler alert. I guess with that mindset then,
do you remember the first gay LGBTQ person, queer person you
just kind of became aware of? And how did that make you feel,
knowing that you had this kind of real urge and desire to not
be gay? Yeah, we had this really sweet
gay couple who lived down our Rd, Philip and Blair.
And again, this is the kind of contradiction, I mean with my
parents and my parents were really good friends with them.
And my dad would do remember my dad saying like how unfair it is
that someone's sexuality which they don't choose.
He was very aware of that can be the basis for for
discrimination. And yeah, as I, as I say, like
didn't, didn't, I didn't do anything to stop the word gay
being bandied around by my siblings and I as a, as a, as a,
as an insult. But yeah, I think, you know, we
would have Philip and Blair over.
But then I think, you know, my siblings once they had left the
piece of some quite cruel comments.
So I guess pretty pretty early on it was like that.
That's that's weird. That's, you know, not, not what
we really not, not what my parents are, not what my uncles
and aunts are, you know, not what my, you know, not really
the model that we want to be following.
But hilariously my dad, he might have a sight, very bright guy
and super interested in science and stuff and he became aware of
this this this fact. Which you may or may not be
aware of that the more older brothers you have, the likely
you are to be gay. Don't know if.
OK, yeah, I didn't know that. How many older brothers do you?
Have Well, this is the thing. I have two older brothers.
OK. I've only got 1 so I don't know
what happened to me. Well, no, that I mean, it's
still your, your chances are like doubled by each.
I mean, you know, obviously they still remain low, but but to my
dad like just raising that as a point of interest, like the
dinner table and then. Looking at you.
Older brothers looking at me and being like and me being like,
yeah, I don't know, guys. Can't believe everything you
read? That that can't be true, Yeah.
Well, then I guess with that feeling, you know, with that
exposure of that, you know, knowing a gay couple, but that
feeling in that sense that this wasn't the life you wanted and
you felt it wasn't the life your family wanted for you.
Do you remember the first time you did feel that kind of first
awareness of queerness that you may be gay?
I think like. Interestingly, as I get older, I
think I, I backdate that to earlier because I didn't have
like sexual thoughts about, you know, other boys until I was 14.
But like looking back earlier, probably when I was like 11 or
12, I can remember being like, oh boy, in my class is like
really, I don't even know how an 11 year old, you know, thinks or
how I thought about them. But like, oh, that, that boy is
really like pretty or good looking, whatever.
Yeah. So yeah, probably sort of 10 or
11 maybe. But still was the period in
which I started to be like, OK, this, this is a possibility.
And then really, I think 14. So 1415 is was like kind of
denial. And then I, I said to myself, I
remembers, I was like, if, if it's still like this when you're
21, then then come out. Because I think the, the idea of
it being a phase was still still in vogue in like the 2000s.
So I said that to myself and, and actually I, I ended up
following that to pretty much the letter.
I did come out OK. Do you remember then like you
come across and you mentioned a little bit earlier that people
come up to you and say you come across as incredibly
authentically you, you feel, you feel very confident in yourself.
Do you remember the first time you did feel authentically
yourself, and then when you could bring that authenticity to
everything you do? Yeah, I mean, I, I certainly
like, I remember the period of coming out as like an incredibly
exciting and happy 1. I had, I was at university and I
had the first two and a bit years there I had sort of fallen
into like a lot of the same patterns I did at school.
Like I played sport and like I was in like the drinking
society, whatever. And so and I was still
pretending to be straight. And then I met a guy through a
friend who I knew was gay and I sort of engineered the meeting
because he was also really hot. And then he was pretty much
we've. All been there, yeah.
Quite. And yeah, he was pretty much the
first person I told other than I could grind a hook up that
earlier that summer, which was a really scary event.
But yeah, I remember telling him and then kind of, you know, me
and him sort of, I mean, he was in an open relationship with a
guy at the time and then some me and him sort of we were like
messaging all Christmas and we met up and stuff and then broke
up with his boyfriend and me and him started dating.
And then obviously kind of once we started dating, he was like,
you've got to tell people. And so that was actually really
great because it meant I had to tell people really.
And he he was really, really supportive.
And yeah, I definitely remember, you know, this kind of rush or
an overwhelming feeling of like, God, thank God, you know, this
sort of extraordinary relief because.
Yeah, you obviously carried it around with you for a long, long
time. Yeah, I think one of the themes
that comes up in your comedy, which I hope you don't mind us
discussing, is around loss and grief, because you've shared
that your mum very sadly passed away during your A levels and
then your dad passed away during your university finals.
That's such a formative time in anyone's life.
How do you think going through that at that point in time
shaped you and your relationship, yourself and your
relationship with your family going forward?
Yeah, it was like a a wild time really.
I think particularly because my childhood was very privileged
and and idyllic and I come from like a sort of middle class set
where, you know, bad things don't really happen very often.
Very fortunately, on top of those like material privileges,
you have some, I'm like white and male and and cisgendered
and, and straight. Sorry, I'm not straight.
And he's back in the closet. But like, you know, relatively
straight passing. So so, you know, rarely the
victim, for example, of homophobia.
But so I think, yeah, you know, my mum dying was sort of my
introduction to when I was 17 introduction to sort of, you
know, see the bad, bad things can happen.
And in a way, obviously that is hugely sad.
But it's also like, you know, gosh, what I guess a privilege
in some ways for that to have really been your first, you
know, experience of that. But kind of during that period
my mum died. I was kind of deeply for the
next sort of five years, I guess, like quite, quite upset
and depressed about being gay and how to come out and, and all
that kind of stuff. And then, and, and then my dad
died. And as you said, there's, it was
a bit mad. My mum did the cemetery and my
mum died a week before my A levels and then my dad died like
2 weeks before my university finals.
I was like, guys, can we do we have to, but I think doing those
exams and, and, and, you know, doing well, I think on the one
hand, like meant that I actually kind of suppressed quite a lot
of them feelings of grief and stuff because I just had to from
a functional perspective to get through the exams.
But I think it's also meant that I sort of have, I know I have
sort of a well that I can draw on of sort of mental strength.
I'm like, gosh, if I was able to do that, then, you know,
whatever. Yeah.
Did you have a a chance or do you think your parents knew?
Did you have a chance to come out to either of them?
Was there any kind of sense they got to know you?
Your your your true authentic self.
I mean, I never, I didn't. I'd certainly didn't come out to
my mum, but I also, you know, I also didn't have Oh well, I I
kind of had girlfriends ish at school, but I didn't introduce
my parents to any of them. I think they it was, you know, a
plausible option, But I also don't think they like thought I
was gay necessarily. I think I probably will.
I definitely like, avoided, you know, be in camp or doing stuff
that would make them all people, all school friends think I was
gay. Do you know what I mean?
And then my dad's I Yeah. So my dad was ill.
I mean, he, he was just deeply, deeply depressed after my mum
died and sort of developed a bit of psychotic depression.
And so actually in the spring, just a couple of months before
he he passed away, I was going to I told my I came back to my
siblings and I was like, you should I tell dads?
And they were kind of like, well, and they didn't say doe,
but they were like, I don't, you know, we probably won't, you
probably won't get what you want out of it.
And he wasn't really communicating much at all.
And yeah, to an extent it was. And I was also like, there was a
little bit of he has enough on his play at the moment.
That's OK. I've done the hearing that I'm
gay is going to like, if his issue is, you know, his his wife
of 40 years, he's passed away. I'm not sure hearing that I'm
gay is going to like shift the dial in either direction.
But I, I, I, I get it. I don't hold like a grudge on
that. But that like quite, you know,
humorously from a sort of, you know, slapstick perspective, my
my boyfriend came to stay at the family home that my dad was
living in. That was kind of he just kept
himself to himself. So I had to tell him like a
friend was staying like for a week in my bedroom.
But whatever says, I mean, you know, probably, possibly he, he
had his suspicions, if you like. Yeah, that's super interesting.
And I think, you know, it's already come out in this
conversation. You know, comedy can be a really
powerful tool for coping. And in your case, do you think
I'm curious to know about your journey into comedy?
But then do you think humour and your comedy work has helped you
through the grief process? Because you mentioned you feel
like you're repressed a lot of it.
Has comedy help you come to terms with that and and work
through it? Yeah, definitely.
I think talking about it on stage, but I mean, also like,
you know, the comedy, obviously comedy that happens on stage is
only a tiny portion of, of what you of of, of comedy as an
outlet. All of you know, all of us, this
is going to sound so all of us are comedians.
No, but just like, you know, yeah, I like, I've I quite early
on I, you know, used comedy as a, as a way to talk about it to
friends and so on. Because, yeah, it's so
overwhelming that, you know, there's obviously a time to be
sad about it, but it but it is also just a part of life.
And and so, you know, unlike all other parts of life, you've got
to be able to laugh about it. And I think, you know,
particularly with, like, friends, my school friends and
stuff, I think they were brilliant and have always been
wonderful. I think because, you know, it
was in any circle, it's quite unusual to lose 2 parents in
that quite short space of time. And both by the edge, both by
the edge of 21. But I think there was a like,
oh, you know, this is too so serious.
We can't joke about it. So I think, like, allowing that
because, you know, it's good. Yeah.
Yeah, when do you think? Then let's talk about kind of
your journey into comedy. When did you realise comedy was
something you wanted to pursue as a career?
And then I'm also curious as to the role your kind of queerness
has played in your performance and your kind of decision to get
into comedy. Yeah, I mean, I have quite a
sort of a mixed entrance into it.
I think the moment I just, I can like remember the moment I
decided I wanted to, I was on holiday with that same
boyfriend, so like full 10 years ago now and my dad had just
died. And I was like, oh, like, I
mean, I guess at the time my path would have been into sort
of corporate jobs ish. You know, like most of my
friends are in and kind of siblings and family.
And I was like, actually, you know, like life is really,
really short and my dad's probably only only did something
he was passionate about in like the last 10 years of his life.
And so I was like, let's, you know, let's, let's give it a go
and see. And so I, I stayed on for
another year at uni and got into the like the university comedy
Society. And, and then kind of my early
stabs at it and like the London open mic scene and stuff were
like relatively unsuccessful. And so I actually sort of, sort
of stopped. I was a teacher in like the late
twenty 10's and did actually get fired, to be fair.
And then kind of when I was fired, it was for pulling
sickies. Don't worry.
OK, OK. You're like.
I need a new career. There's nothing.
There's nothing to worry about. Yeah, kind of.
When I got fired just on the eve of the pandemic, I was like, OK,
well, you know, why don't you give it, kind of give it a
proper go. And yes, I started tutoring and
doing stand up. And then the pandemic, I started
doing like skits on social media and kind of grew a bit of a
following. And then I think that that
increased my confidence in stand up and the both kind of fed into
one another because I think it's, you know, it's confidence
in yourself is probably probably the most important asset in this
game. Yeah, to stand up on stage and
kind of just like hope people laugh at what you're about to
say must be kind of terrifying. Yeah.
And I think it's like it's, you know, just confidence is how can
I, you know, am I good? Can I keep writing good stuff?
You know, will I, will I write that 10 minutes I need for the
show the next month, all, you know, all that kind of stuff
because you're going to get knocked back time and time again
by the industry and whatever it is and by your own kind of self
doubts. So yeah, I think just like being
convinced that, you know, is is really important.
Yeah. And as far as kind of like you
yourself in your, in your kind of your queerness and your
authenticity around that, do you ever feel the need to kind of
edit yourself or exaggerate your queerness depending on the
audience or the kind of the situation?
I think I, I don't think I do. I think I'm relatively like me
on stage and I think like my, I mean my persona on stage is
probably like gay but likes football or whatever.
And I think that has been helpful, certainly in the
environments I came up through comedy wise, those sort of like
gong shows where there's, you know, useful to be able to tease
straight guys in the audience and that kind of thing.
Yeah, I don't, I don't necessarily feel the need to
edit myself. I do feel the the pressure and
and actually the desire and whether that's like my own
desire or I feel like the industry reflecting back to me
desire to like talk about being a less and, you know, do a show
about something else or whatever.
But I think anyone with like a, let's say an identity badge
feels that after their their sort of debut show, which is
often about that, they're like, OK, that's the industry's bored
with that now. OK, Yeah.
And you talk about teasing a straight guy.
You took your show. I need a straight guy on the
road in May and June. What was that experience like?
Yeah, it was great. It was, it was, you know, really
cool. It was such a a crazy privileged
to be doing a tour and sort of, yeah, you know, you don't ever
think that that you'll get to that stage.
So it was really cool. I had lovely, lovely audiences.
That's my favourite. Maybe Cardiff.
Cardiff was wicked. Just so good.
Yeah. I think like one thing you have
to get used to in this game is that like by the end of that
process of building a show, you are pretty bored of your own
show. Right, OK.
It's because you, yeah, you've done it a lot.
And yeah, I've done it, you know, 30 times the year before
in Edinburgh and, and it had been worked in progress over the
previous of two years. So you're a bit like, OK, like,
how do I breathe life into this? How do I remember that?
It's like the audience's first time seeing it.
How do I sort of. Yeah, you know, so that's that's
an interesting challenge. But I think, yeah, probably it's
probably by that stage your favourite parts of the show are
like, you know, random moments of audience interaction that
really bring the show to life. You just always particularly
that show had had like inbuilt audience interaction like with a
straight guy. So those bits were always really
funny because it's like something different or something
new each show. Yeah, that does sound cool.
And I think, you know my perception, someone who's never
been a comedian, never going to go on tour as a comedian, it
feels like comedy often does mean kind of life on the road.
And when you're kind of touring that show and when you were in
Edinburgh, how does that lifestyle kind of impact you
personally? And then how do you kind of stay
grounded in yourself when you are kind of travelling in
Edinburgh or travelling around kind of the country doing the
shows? Yeah, I think it's hard and it's
it's, I think, you know why quite a lot of comedians, we
drink too much. I think also why kind of
comedians are tea total because they're like, oh God, if I'm
going to stay in this game, I need these like boundaries.
Yeah, it's hard. It can be hard to establish like
a healthy like routine and stuff.
I mean, like for me personally, most of my gigs are in London,
you know, maybe like one weekend a month, one to two weekends a
month. I might be around the country.
And I mean, my tour by all standards was still relatively
small. It's only like 11 dates.
So I'm not like on the road, you know, kind of crazy amount, but
I can imagine, yeah. Once you, you know, once you're
whatever at gamble when you're doing sort of, you know, 200 day
tours, staying in hotels all the time and just in your car a lot.
It's yeah, hard to sort of build a routine and stick to it,
basically. Yeah, well, maybe that is the
life to follow for you as kind of success continues to build.
One of the things I really admire about you is that you've
used your platform on social media to talk about causes that
you care about and issues in kind of the global climate that
you care about. How do you kind of approach
speaking up on those topics? Has there ever been any pressure
for you to either speak up or stay quiet, or have you kind of
had the ability to kind of do what you feel is best in
yourself? Yeah, I mean, I've always done,
you know, what I've, what I feel is right, what I feel passionate
about. You know, obviously,
particularly with Gaza over the last two years, I mean, maybe
less so now that that, you know, the penny has finally dropped
for, you know, in big institutions and so on.
But yeah, definitely, you know, in something like brand work,
for example, it felt like having, you know, Free Palestine
in my bio and and speaking out about it a lot was probably
probably, probably it meant meant I was a sort of no go for
quite a lot of brands. But you know, such is life.
And I think when stuff's important to you and, and you
look back and you think like, how could I have done nothing
then? Then yeah.
So yeah, I wouldn't regret it for sure.
No, I think it's incredibly important.
And you know, as someone who kind of has admired your work
and admired kind of the presence you have online, I think it is
amazing that you've kind of used your platform to speak up on
that, obviously. And the Befringe recent tour,
kind of what's next for you from a kind of a comedy perspective?
Yeah, I think at the moment I'm I'm I'm going to take a little
bit of a break from stand up just to sort of kind of refresh
myself or maybe come at it with some new ideas and a sort of
fresh perspective in the new year.
And so I think now is really like the way that kind of comedy
or the industry sort of works going on quote is you sort of
build towards this kind of debut show.
And then afterwards it can feel a little bit, which is where I
am now of sort of like, what is actually next?
What do I want to focus on? Do I want to build towards
another show? Do I want to be someone who sort
of churns out like a show every year or every two years or
something? Or, you know, am I going to
focus on on online? Am I going to write a book?
Am I going to say all of these things?
So I think actually to be honest with you at the moment I'm just
taking a little bit of time to work out sort of what is is next
for me basically, yeah. I.
Think that's fair. And I think, you know, we all
need those moments where we kind of reset, kind of rethink
through kind of what we want to focus on and where we want to
focus our time. We started this conversation
talking about your younger self, young Marks.
I want to revisit him. If you could give him one piece
of advice, what would it be? And would it be different if I
said, what advice would you give to a young LGBTQ plus person
today? I yeah, I think my advice to me
would definitely have been just come out on your first day of
uni. So yeah, because I went to a
really queer uni like, OK, so you.
Could have had a lot of fun, yeah.
I think I missed out on 2 1/2 years.
I will say, yeah, I don't regret not coming out of school.
I don't think my all male school friends or I were really
equipped with the right language to to kind of discuss that.
And yeah, I think I think kind of the same.
I think for young LGBT people, you know, obviously if it's sort
of safe to do so at the moment, that's kind of up in the air.
But yeah, you know, come out as soon as you can if you can.
It's obviously really sad that like the, the landscape has
changed a lot in the 10 years since I came out.
And obviously I think we believe that we're on this sort of
unending arc of justice, but in reality, we're not.
You know, things go back and forwards and, and, and back and
forwards. And at the moment it feels like
we're on the way back, which is sad.
Yeah, I've heard it described as a pendulum and it swings back
and forth and you just got to hope that we are kind of on that
swing back right now. But when we swing it back
forward, we swing it further and harder than we did before.
So we can only hope. And obviously, if people like
you who are out there kind of bringing incredible awareness
and having kind of putting comedy at the centre of
everything, but also kind of with like a really important
message and just good representation is super, super
important. Mark, thank you so much for
being on Quit Talk over your day.
It's been incredible to learn more about you.
We will look out for news in 2026 of more to come from you.
But thank you so much for being on Quit Talk with you today.
Amazing. Thank you for having me.
It's been a pleasure. Quit talking