I first saw Mark Thomas during the Galway Arts Festival two years ago, promoting his book As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela. He was animated, funny, angry and- not really reaching the audience. Last Saturday night I realised why: most people there didn’t give a shit about loopholes in international arms law unless they parked a tank in their sittingroom and shelled the widescreen television. This was in contrast to the palpable tension and raw energy of last week’s audience in the Radisson Hotel. The reason? Thomas was railing against banks, the credit orgy and the failure of the political class, common ground for everyone there. Thomas was in full voice as soon as he took to the stage, possibly the benefit of having played here before, and also of having a show that wasn’t a retreading of vast tracts of his book (a symptom of his last show: … There’s more →