Image credit: Owen (left) and Tom (right), the early years.

From a makeshift “TV studio” in the back room of a village pantomime to the controlled-chaos brilliance of The Christmas Thing, Tom Clarkson and Owen Visser have spent a lifetime turning silliness into an art form. Friends since they were six, their creative bond was forged in the 90s – an era of anarchic live television, camcorders, VHS experiments and a deep love for The Muppet Show – all of which now flow unmistakably through their work.

What makes Mr Thing magic is the way they complement each other: Tom’s exuberant, warm-hearted host energy colliding perfectly with Owen’s deadpan, tech-wizardry mischief. Together they create a world where anything can happen, and usually does – with joy, generosity and Jim Henson-esque spirit at its core.

The Christmas Thing runs at Seven Dials Playhouse until 20 December – go witness the mayhem.

Let’s start with Tom…

You and Owen have known each other since you were five, but take us deeper: what were the first “Things” you were making together in the 90s and naughty noughties? What were the sparks – the VHS camcorder era, school plays, terrible mixtapes – that nudged you toward directing and performance?

I can’t remember a time not knowing Owen and as kids we spent as much time as possible making stupid things together… short films, animations, radio plays, parodies of adverts we’d watched, we put on festivals, toured with bands, DJ’d friends birthdays, hosted events, took shows to the Fringe…

But one vivid memory sticks out of when we were both about 7 our families put on a local pantomime. Me and Owen were only in a couple of scenes so we spent most of it backstage messing around and turned one of the dressing rooms into a ‘TV studio’ where we hosted this show with games and songs and sketches to absolutely nobody except this giant dressing room mirror. We used to call it ‘The Owen and Tom Show’

20 years later we were both busy pretending to be adults and hadn’t found a lot of time to do silly stuff together anymore. I set up a WhatsApp group called ‘The Owen and Tom Show’ and asked him if we should try to put on the show. A month later we did our first ever Mr. Thing show.

Image credit: Tom on set with the guy wearing the ‘camera helmut’. Photographed by Nia Visser.

The Christmas Thing feels like a beautifully chaotic TV special that’s escaped into real life. When you’re building this world – the games, the guests, the gadgets – what’s the secret sauce? What’s the one surreal Christmas television moment from your youth that sits at the heart of this show?

The 90s was a really fun time for TV. Things like TFI Friday, The Big Breakfast, Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush, Adam and Joe, Noel’s House Party all had this anarchic, any-thing-can-happen, live TV edge. Owen and I loved that when we were kids and the show really is born from that energy but mixed in with the vintage Christmas TV Special warmth of Morecambe and Wise, Bing Crosby or The Muppet Show.

Your hosting energy is all high-wire charm-meets-controlled-chaos. For this year’s run at Seven Dials Playhouse, what’s the bit of the show that secretly terrifies you (in a good way), and what’s the bit you’re most excited for people to witness going gloriously off the rails?

We did a show years ago where everything that could go wrong went wrong. Afterwards we were sat in the bar feeling pretty sorry for ourselves and our friend Gary told us that if everything had gone right he would have asked for his money back because it wouldn’t be Mr. Thing. Despite being a little rude, he was right! The magic of Mr. Thing isn’t about it all being perfect, it’s about it having the space to go anywhere it needs to, even when things completely fall apart!

We don’t know what each show will be… we have guests coming up from the audience, people running around with cameras on their heads, a ping pong ball firing bum that goes off at random intervals, a drumming robot, Deliveroo drivers coming from the street straight onto the stage…

So I guess I’m secretly terrified by it all… and that’s what makes it all exciting.

Image credit: Tom, Owen, the puppet master and the puppet in rehearsal. Photographed by Nia Visser.

Mr Thing has this warmth – it’s anarchic, but never cynical. What’s the personal value or belief that sits behind it for you? Why is “joy through collective silliness” important right now, and what does it give you as much as the audience?

I’m a huge Jim Henson fan and all of his work is a reflection of a really great ethos that drove The Muppets and is a constant inspiration for Mr. Thing…

The main part of that is he knew that to get people behind his wild ideas he knew that the priority was that it needed to be fun and that everyone… puppeteers, writers, crew, filmmakers, guests… should all be having the best time doing what they do.

That’s what we try to do. We’re so lucky to have so many wonderful friends who work on this with us and we just try to make the whole thing as fun and silly and imaginative as possible. And if everyone is enjoying what they do that really seeps into what happens on the stage and the audience’s enjoyment.

I do believe that’s what the world needs right now! Just a couple of hours to switch off from it all and mess around together.

Image credit: Tom and Owen, on set. Photographed by Bonnie Britain.

You’ve spent years hopping between sets, theatres, and late-night venues. Which three London spaces, venues or communities feel like home to you – places where you’ve felt that spark of possibility or mischief that feeds Mr Thing’s creative engine?

Gerry’s Club on Dean Street. The greatest spot in London to sing along to a piano at 2am with the most wonderful mix of late night Soho weirdos.

The Prince Charles Cinema is one of the last independent cinemas in London that truly feels like it’s run by movie lovers for movie lovers* I love to slip in there during the day for a mid movie nap after a little Chinatown feast. I have a very difficult life as you can tell. *See also the Nickel Cinema in Clerkenwell!

Special Guest is a community night, currently in Peckham but it moves about a bit. The idea is that anyone from the audience can get on the stage and they have 60 seconds to do what ever they like. It’s beautifully candid and a really warm space – I’ve seen people there read poems, tell stories…somebody even got the crowd to help her write a break up text.

Image credit: Photo of Owen and Tom, from their teenage days.

Enter Owen…

You were a young performer and then a West End sound/tech wizard long before the Mr Thing days. Take us back: in the 90s and early 2000s, what were you building, breaking or tinkering with that hinted at the future Owen – the calm man at the desk who controls the chaos?

With a brief stint as a child performer in a musical, I was lucky enough to get paid and saved up for my first Apple Mac in 1997 aged 10! I was hooked on all things tech from then and growing up as the internet did was so exciting. I have always straddled being on and off stage (I’m very flexible) and Mr Thing is the perfect combination of the two worlds!

The Christmas Thing is a small miracle of live-switching, cameras, robots and “Things” that shouldn’t work but somehow do. What’s the most outrageously overcomplicated piece of tech in this year’s show – and which part of you quietly hopes it misbehaves on the night?

The show file has over 3000 cues built into it now so the chances of all it working smoothly are slim even on a good day but it’s all part of what makes the show exciting I think! We’ve had everything in the show from automated Debbie McGees to audience controlled scalextric voting systems. My favourite still has to be one of our oldest toys, a bespoke compressed air powered ping pong ball firing bottom that acts as our Christmas Doorbell. It tends to have a mind of its own and can fire at random points much to my terror and the audience’s delight.

Image credit: Owen, on set. Photographed by Nia Visser.

Your deadpan counterbalance to Tom’s exuberance is a huge part of the show’s comic DNA. For the 2025 run, what’s one moment where your dynamic with Tom hits peak “two best mates building chaos from scratch”? And what’s the invisible work the audience might not realise you’re doing?

We’ve known each other since I was 6 so we’ve really put the hours in to be fair, which is the invisible work – I try to predict where Tom is going on stage efore he does! I spend a lot of the show in control of cameras, lights, sound and more so my favourite moments are where I can step away from all my various buttons and jump into a perfectly choreographed, yet imperfectly executed, musical number together. That will never get old! (Unlike us),

You’ve worked in major theatres and on huge productions, but Mr Thing is wonderfully personal and home-brewed. What value sits at the heart of it for you? Why does making something fun, intimate and a bit unruly feel like the right kind of art right now.

Although it’s Tom & I in the suits… at it’s heart, Mr Thing is a collective of all of our incredibly talented friends and family who all come together to commit to silliness with the highest production values possible. There’s lot going on in the world and it’s harder than ever to switch off from that! Our show is the perfect antidote, come in, quaff an eggnog, perchance have a mince pie and embrace the thing spirit! It’s also not a Christmas Carol which sets it apart from most shows in December.

Image credit: Tom and Owen, on set. Photographed by Bonnie Britain.

You’ve worked everywhere from the West End to indie rooms above pubs. Which three London venues, spaces or communities feel like your cultural home – the places that shaped your craft, or where you still go to dream, laugh, explore or test things out?

Soho Theatre, Dean Street: It’s basically the Edinburgh Fringe all year long in London and I love it. Going to see something and then having a post show pint in a plastic cup whilst bumping into mates is the best!

The London Palladium: I’ve been lucky enough to work here a few times but the Palladium is like no other theatre. I’m a geek for any venue designed by the great Frank Matcham and you can feel the history seeping from the walls! I still love it, even if they have done up the stage door area and it feels a bit like a Premier Inn now. I’m determined that one day we will do our show there, we may not sell it out, but we’ll do it.

This is is the opposite of cool but this goes no further, right? It has to anywhere on the Elizabeth line – I have lost so many hours to Youtube watching videos about the making of it so I was disproportionately excited when it opened and even took a flag. It’s a real engineering marvel and I will often choose Lizzie even if she significantly extends my Journey. I’ll pretend it’s so I can come up with Mr Thing ideas. Yes that’s it.

Find Tom and Owen at wearething.co.uk

The Christmas Thing
Seven Dials Playhouse
1A Tower St, London WC2H 9NP
Until 20 December
sevendialsplayhouse.co.uk