Mr. Thing Bring Festive Mayhem to Seven Dials with The Christmas Thing

They’ve been best friends since the age of five, now Tom Clarkson and Owen Visser, the comedy duo behind Mr Thing, are bringing their brilliantly bonkers brand of Christmas chaos back to Seven Dials Playhouse. Their show, The Christmas Thing, is part live TV special, part festive variety hour, and total mayhem. We spoke to Tom and Owen about their shared love of classic British comedy, how they walk the fine line between chaos and control and why they’re happiest when everything seems on the verge of falling apart.

For anyone who hasn’t seen it, tell us  - what is The Christmas Thing?

OWEN: Imagine you’re walking in to a live TV broadcast of a strange 1970s Christmas special. Full of games and songs and stupid sketches and roaming cameras and special guests.

TOM: But the show and the entire set up is run by two idiots on stage who should have rehearsed it all a lot more.

OWEN: Or at all.

How did you two first start working together and when did you realise you had something that really clicked?

TOM: We met when we were 5 years old at a New Years Eve party hiding from a boy who smelt of celery. And we’ve been making stupid stuff together since then!  

OWEN: When we were kids, it was making films, stop motion animations and running a moderately successful disc jockeying empire.

TOM: We were huge on the 12-15 birthday party circuit.  

OWEN: I was the technical brains of the operation and Tom was the microphone holding games master and not much has changed. We then set up a 12-piece Blues Brothers tribute band and took it to festivals and on tours for a bit which was so much fun.

TOM: And THEN in 2016 we booked a pub theatre for a night without really knowing what we were going to do.  A few days before we came up with this idea that we could host a night of Things. Things we like, Things our friends are doing, Things people in the audience might want to show us... and people really liked it!  So, we did it again in bigger spaces, then took it on tour and to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

The show pays homage to a particular kind of British Christmas entertainment. How do you keep that nostalgia alive without it feeling old-fashioned?

TOM: The kind of humour we love is warm hearted and silly and there’s a sort of timelessness to that.

OWEN: Plus, we’re taking that style and then throwing loads of modern ideas and technology at it so it sits in that world but feels entirely new.

TOM: Ooo, that’s a nice way of putting it.

OWEN: Thanks.

If The Christmas Thing really was broadcast live to the nation, who would you want as your special guests?

TOM: We’ve had loads of really exciting guests on Mr. Thing over the years.  But honestly the Thing we love the most is the unusual stories and skills we get from inviting guests from the audience.  We’ve heard so many interesting stories and industry secrets! Like the flight attendant who enacted her secret revenge on a particularly rude customer... or when we chatted to a lifesaving helicopter winchman or a house cleaner who exclusively worked naked!

OWEN: Sometimes we’ve had big names without realising!  We got the keyboard player from Bastille to show off his limbo skills. Or that England rugby player who came up to demonstrate his rock-paper-scissor winning streak.

TOM: Nathan Hughes

OWEN: More like Nathan Huge.

TOM: Terrible.

OWEN: Sorry.

Your shows have been called “anarchic” and “sublimely silly.”  What’s the line between chaos and comedy for you?

TOM: The fun with our show is that the line between the two changes all the time and that really depends on the audience that night.

OWEN: We don’t put anyone on the spot though, anyone can get involved as much or as little as they like. We just want everyone to have a nice time and spread a bit of Christmas cheer.

TOM: Like baby Jesus.

OWEN: or Cliff Richard.

A lot of the show feels like it could fall apart at any moment…how much of that is planned, and how much is genuinely improvised?

TOM: As well as co-hosting the show, Owen is controlling everything from a desk on the stage... moving cameras, sound effects, lighting, a remote-controlled Debbie McGee, a Robot drummer and a ping pong ball firing bum.

OWEN: It’s a lot.

TOM: Some would say too much.

OWEN: Many do.

TOM: ...and that shows in the amount that tends to go wrong every night! I bound around playing games, sticking cameras on people’s heads, inviting people on stage to show us their party tricks...

OWEN: And I have to keep up.

TOM: Some would say you often don’t.

OWEN: Many do.

TOM: And the chaos of it all being on the brink of falling apart is the Mr. Thing sweet spot!

There’s a clear love of classic sketch and slapstick in your work. Who are your biggest comedy influences?”

TOM: We grew up loving stuff like Morecambe and Wise, Tommy Cooper, Airplane, The Goon Show or the Muppet Show. Anything where it’s packed full of nonsense and feels like it’s going to fall apart any minute!

OWEN: There have been other influences we’ve picked up along the way... Shooting Stars, Adam and Joe, We Need Answers...

TOM: Owen also toured doing sound with Barry Humphries and picked up a lot from how he worked the crowd.

OWEN: You love a bit of silent comedy slapstick too.

TOM: I do! And you love a bath on a Thursday night.

OWEN: The bubbles make my skin soft.

Catch Owen and Tom in ‘The Christmas Thing' at Seven Dials Playhouse from 2nd - 20th December. For tickets and more information, visit: https://www.sevendialsplayhouse.co.uk/shows/the-christmas-thing