POLITICAL activist and comic Mark Thomas is making his prankster progress through his 100 Acts Of Minor Dissent. So is he on course to complete them by the time his tour ends on May 15?

“I’ve done 58 so far,” says the BBC Radio 4 and Channel 4 pied piper of protest, speaking on January 30. “That’s a little bit behind schedule and I’m very well aware of that. I’ll just have to pull my finger out.”

Is everything prepared? “No, I haven’t got them all thought through but they’ll come to me,” he vows.

His acts of dissension form the subject matter of his ever-changing live show, whose evolution in pursuit of revolution is accompanied by Mark’s 100 Acts Twitter account and his own @markthomasinfo account as he catalogues everything from the smallest, silliest gesture to the grandest confrontation.

“The silliest gesture so far has been putting stickers of the back of the public toilet doors of a well-known department store, warning that CCTV is in 24-hour operation, but from these things spring other ideas,” says Mark.

“The grandest confrontation is taking out a court case against the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit, which works out of the Metropolitan Police.

“We’re getting our bits and bobs ready for a court case. We’ve served letters on the police and it all depends on how other court cases go. Cases are being backed by the National Union of Journalists, and in my case a lot of their material has come from my journalism.

“They’ve collated material on me through data protection claims and we’re challenging the retention of that information.”

Come on, Mark, you’re a troublemaker, aren’t you? “I might annoy people but I’m a non-violent protestor,” he protests. “I would love to be a revolutionary, but I have an aversion to blood, especially my own.”

Mark’s show has gained momentum since its preview at Selby Town Hall last June. “Stuff has to drop out of the show because you’re endlessly adding new things, like when, just before going on stage one night, someone tweeted me with an advert for an unqualified maths teacher at a South Leeds college,” he says.

“We got hold of it, showed it on my projector, and I got the whole of the audience to apply for the job – apart from one guy who was a qualified maths teacher.”

What did Mark make of the advert? “I think it was quite obvious that the college just wanted to save some money. It’s nasty, nasty, grubby politics when it’s affecting children’s education,” he says.

He declined to reveal what acts of dissent may be on the cards by the time he arrives at Pocklington Arts Centre on February 13. But Mark did promise: “Though I can’t tell you details this early, I can tell you there will be a lot of new stuff this week. It’s just the way things have panned out.”

He is “hugely enjoying” working his way through his 100 acts, as he continues a career as an agent-provocateur comedian that he could never have envisaged as a teenager.

“When I decided I wanted to be a performer at 16, I had no idea how many people I would p*** off or how many bridges I would burn,” he says. “Now I just have to constantly go and do annoying things as a way of creating material.”

Surely you must have annoyed more people than any other comedian by now, Mark? “No,” he says. “I think you’d have to go a long way to beat Russell Brand.”

• Mark Thomas, 100 Acts Of Minor Dissent, Pocklington Arts Centre, February 13, 8pm; Harrogate Theatre, May 7, 8pm. Box office: Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk