COMEDIAN Mark Thomas will visit Bolton next month to tell tales about what he does best — mischief.

The presenter and political activist has poked his nose into enough issues to cause a politician to resign, arms deals to collapse, reform inheritance tax law and force the odd multinational company to clean up its act a little.

Now Mark, who also accidentally became the Guinness World Record holder for political protests, is bringing his latest show, 100 Acts Of Minor Dissent, to the Albert Halls on Friday, March 28.

On May 13 last year, Mark set himself the task of committing 100 trouble-causing incidents in the space of a year, and on the stroke of midnight on May 13 this year, the task will end.

Throughout the show, he will catalogue everything from the smallest and silliest gesture to the grandest confrontations. Mark, who became known as a guest comic on the BBC radio comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s, said: “I’m over 50 acts in.

I’ve got to commit 100, which is proving more problematic than I would have thought.

“I quite enjoyed the progay stand-up comedy gig in Edinburgh. We did it in front of the Russian Consulate in the street.

“That was great fun — 600 people blocked the street completely. That was just enormous fun to take over the street.

“If I don’t succeed, there’s a penalty which is I will donate £1,000 to UKIP, which is the worst thing I could think of doing.”

All the subversive acts are linked to what is currently making the comedian’s blood boil, and one of the most difficult, in terms of planning and scale, has been working with a disabled rights group to create a questionnaire about Atos Healthcare — the organisation which carries out disability assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Mark said: “More than 1,400 people have completed the questionnaire so far. We want to get that to 3,000 and we are going to get academics to unpick that and present it to the Parliamentary Select Committee.

“That’s quite a lot of work for one act. Some of them are more serious than others.”

When not on stage, Mark has produced six series of Channel 4’s The Comedy Project, presented documentaries, written three books, published a manifesto and won awards, including a Sony Award and a Time Out Comedy Award.

He said: “I’ve been up before the various television authorities.

“I’ve been criticised for this and that. I’ve been arrested. I’ve been put on trial.

“I’ve had my phone lines cut by people. I’ve had graffiti on my house.”

Well versed in the art of creative mayhem, over the years Mark’s troublemaking has changed laws, cost companies millions and annoyed those who he thinks most deserved it.

He said: “Culture and dissent and art and politics go hand in hand.

“Dissent is fun, it’s naughty. It can be small, it can be big. People do it all the time.” So what are his plans once his task is finished, and he has staged a one-off show recounting the 100 acts, planned to take place in Sheffield on May 15?

He said: “I’m going to have a long bath. I’m going to have a massive jacuzzi.”

■ Mark Thomas: 100 Acts Of Minor Dissent will be at the Albert Halls on March 28 at 8pm. Call 01204 334400 for tickets.