Liverpudlian streaker Mark Roberts is the world's most famous naked man. The veteran of over 150 streaks, he has shown his wares to hundreds of thousands of people, including the Queen of England (three times). For more information on him, check out his website. After seeing an HBO special about him, I decided that he was one of the most interesting people I have ever heard of, and I wanted to interview him for my website. I talked with him via telephone while he was in the car on the way to a Robbie Williams concert. He turned out to be just as outgoing as one might expect from a man who runs around naked for kicks. We got started talking about movies, but one quickly learns that Roberts is willing to discuss just about anything.

Mike: Since this is a movie review website, I should start by asking if you have any favorite movies.

Mark: Favorite movies… one of my old favorites is The Sound of Music. You know when Julie Andrews runs through the hills, singing her head off… when I see the grass, I always wish that a gust of wind would blow her skirt up. I just want to see Julie's undies.

Mike: This might be too obvious, but are you a fan of The Full Monty?

Mark: The Full Monty, the movie? Ah, it's superb. I mean, what The Full Monty did was show how life really is in certain cities of England. Things do happen exactly as it was portrayed. It was a real-life sort of movie that… I think it touched everybody, it got to everybody and made them realize that life is really like that in some parts of England.

Mike: This is kind of a silly question, but can you think of any movies that needed streaking or nudity?

Mark: Every single one. The way it's gotten now is that nudity, in the right way, can enhance a film or a TV program or a TV commercial. If it's done tastefully and in the right way, it can make it more of an interesting product or what have you. Especially in England now, there are so many TV commercials with nudity in them, and there are so many TV programs that show nudity on a regular basis, I think it's becoming more of a norm. So I think that even though some parts of government say "Oh, no! We don't like to see this," these people, to me, I think they are close-minded, stiff upper lip and all that shit. It's becoming more part of the norm now, basically. I don't know what it's like in the US.

Mike: There's very little nudity on regular television here. None in commercials. Sometimes a television show that airs late at night will have some, but for everyday television there's none.

Mark: To be honest, Mike, that surprises me because all over Europe nudity is part of the normal way of life. Britain is sort of getting the same way no matter what the government says. TV and people in general are relaxed toward that sort of thing. I always thought, because America is supposed to be the land of the free, it would be part of the norm over there, but I believe it isn't. It's surprising.

Mike: There's usually a right-wing backlash against what they call the breakdown of American values, and nudity on television is part of that.

Mark: Well I want to say to that: fuck it! Wait 'til they see my balls. (laughs)

Mike: Do you ever streak non-events, just run down the street naked?

Mark: All the time. It's a regular thing in Liverpool. Even on Sunday just gone, I was in Liverpool city center and I thought I broke one of my toes, my big toe on my left foot, just by jumping on buses. I put my arm in the door on the outside, and the bus just drives away with me naked, my arm stuck to the bus door. Sometimes, when I'm in bars or clubs, it's more everyone going "come on, let's see you streak"… It gets to the point where I feel as if I'm obliged to streak. And it's not a problem; I enjoy hanging onto a bus, and every time I go out it's becoming the norm. I've got to do it around Liverpool so I go from pub to pub, or jumping on buses or stopping cars. I don't need a TV audience. I've never needed one. What it is now is that every time I go naked, all of a sudden TV cameras pop up around me. I mean, what's going on?

Mike: Do you have any dream streaks that you want to do?

Mark: Oh, the Olympics. I really want to do the Olympics. Obviously, because of the situation I'm in, I can't let things out of the bag, so to speak. There's quite a few, Mike, and before I retire—God knows when I'm going to retire. I chose three more years, but the more I think about it: if I retire, I think I'm going to be bored. Each one's a challenge. What I do nowadays, I don't just run around naked, I try to create a character to go with the streak. At the French Open, I was Quasimodo, and at the football match in Spain I went as a referee, and in the world championship synchronized swimming event in Barcelona I went as a ballerina. It really has gone to a different stage. It's unbelievable; it's really hard to explain, to be honest.

Mike: So it seems to be turning into more of an art than just exhibitionism?

Mark: It's performance art. It's always been performance art, but now it's on a different level.

Mike: Do you feel any affinity for Noel Godin, the Belgian pie-throwing anarchist?

Mark: Well, I think if people have got a statement to make… for me, I'm making the statement that we should all live life and have a laugh. Nakedness is a thing where people take notice. If you do it in the right way, people like to have a laugh. I don't make political statements; what I'm saying is let's all have a laugh. Let's all live and be free. I try and live to the letter of the law, but right on the edge of it. I don't cross that edge, but I'm right on the edge. If you pie a world leader in the face, then you've got to hold yourself up to a number of things that you might not want. It all depends on how far you're prepared to go for what you want to say.

Mike: Are there any historical events or people you wish you could have streaked?

Mark: Neil Armstrong, when he was out there landing on the moon. I was there first. Forget Michael Jackson; I am the original Moonwalker! I know this isn't the time, with what happened to the last shuttle, but there's one thing I wanted to do as part of a video, but I don't want to do anything in bad taste. I don't want to be taken in bad taste in the US. But what I wanted to do was get superimposed on a shuttle launch, and it goes 10, 9, 8, and when it gets to 5, I run across the shuttle, and it goes "Houston, we have a problem." That would have been superb, but with what happened… I don't want to do anything in bad taste at all. What I want to do is make everyone have a laugh at what I do. You have to really think about things before you do them.

Mike: Are there places you won't streak because it would be in bad taste?

Mark: Yeah, of course. You don't do… a few years ago, I got asked by a freelance journalist who said "Mark, would you like to make front-page news around the world?" I said "Doing what?" And he asked me to jump in front of Princess Diana's funeral. How pathetic is that? There's things you do not do. That would have been the stupidest thing on the planet. I don't do stupid things. I do things where I know people are going to have a laugh. I like to create as much laughter as possible. Even if it means me looking stupid, as long as people laugh, I don't care: that's the whole point. Money's not involved…well, it's starting to get involved, but it's never been my drive or objective. I just love having a buzz all the time, and cause other people to have a laugh, regardless of the consequences.

Mike: Would you streak Parliament?

Mark: Bloody right I would. I've been into the British House of Commons years ago. It was live on the BBC… there was one time when a white mouse ran through the house. It was just by chance that I obtained passes for two weeks later, and I had a Tampax stuck up my ass. I wanted to jump onto that floor and say "Has anyone seen my mouse?" There's a little white string hanging out of my ass. Don't go near the Prime Minister or the Opposition; just run through the house shouting "Where's my mouse?", naked with a bit of string hanging out my bum. I think I would still be in prison now. But I went in with that objective, but when I got in there, there was a 12-13 foot drop, make it 25-30 foot drop, and I would have landed on top of an MP's head. Imagine me going to hospital with an MP hanging out my ass? So I decided against it.

Mike: Have you ever been hurt?

Mark: Many times. I had two broken ribs from security at the FA Cup final; I've had a broken toe from the Chinese football game in Hong Kong; I've had a broken ankle jumping out of an audience area onto a TV show, but I didn't know that it was so high, about a 10 foot drop, when I landed I thought I would sprain my ankle but I broke it. I've had a broken finger from falling over wrongly. The other Sunday, I thought I broke my toe but it was just a bruised knuckle. I had 21 stitches in the back of my leg.

Mike: Did you hear about the guy last year in Calgary at a hockey game jumped over the glass wearing only red socks—

Mark: Fell over and knocked himself unconscious. What an amateur! At least do the job first, then you suffer the consequences. I also believe… somebody jumped onto the pitch in the US and fought a coach, or one of the referees at a football match or a baseball game?

Mike: That happened here in Chicago. Twice now. Fans jumped out and attacked coaches.

Mark: That's just ridiculous, mate. You can't do things like that. I understand that fans get very involved in games, but there's dos and don'ts. Don't get upset to the point where you cause violence to anybody. You just don't do that. Violence is for mugs. War is for mugs. The worst thing about it is that the world is at war right now, and a lot of it's to do with religion. You know this yourself. It's just pathetic. People are forgetting to laugh. I want to laugh as much as I can, and make everybody else laugh with me, regardless of the consequences for me.

Mike: So in a way, is it almost political what you do?

Mark: I'd just like to say "let's laugh more." I don't want to make political statements in that way. I just want to go on, do what I do, make the whole crowd laugh for a few minutes, then I'll get arrested. Whatever happens to me, fair enough, I accept all those consequences. Then I go on, and I think about the next one I'm going to do. But I just want people to laugh. People are forgetting how to laugh because of the way the world is. All of our governments will tell us we've got to be like this, we've got to be like that—what a load of bullshit that is, mate. We should act whatever way we want to act. As long as you don't hurt anybody and don't cause any trouble to anybody, we should be able to do what we want. Not be conditioned into the way they want us to be. I'm against all that. I'm a free spirit; more people should become free spirits.

Mike: One last question: have you ever streaked a movie premiere?

Mark: No. What I would really like to have done was when the new Star Wars movie, The Phantom Menace… sometimes in England, I'm known as the Phantom Streaker. I wear a cape and a crazy wig, and call myself Captain Cock. It would be ideal. How far I'd get, I don't know. That's one of the things I would like to do. I must say, though, there in the US, this is crazy… you know the Marvel Comics and all those, Captain America and such, comic book stuff… well a comic book—it's not Marvel, but I think they're the third biggest comic people in America—they want to make a comic book out of me, there in the US. It's unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

Mike: That's great! So you have the single you recorded (The Streak)—

Mark: Well we made the single, but we're actually in the process of doing it again. We're trying to do something for the world market, because that was just for the British market. We're trying to do something for everyone. So we'll do a crazy video—will it be accepted on MTV?—of a great song that people can actually dance to. And after that, Hollywood have been in touch; they want to make a movie of my life.

Mike: That was actually my next question. So things are looking up?

Mark: It's absolutely crazy, mate. I mean, what the hell is going on, mate? For ten years I've been going around having a laugh, doing events, now in the last six or seven months it's gone absolutely unbelievable. It's crazy. Everything seems to have been turned upside-down, but in a good way.

Mike: I think you're about due for that. But I should let you get on to your concert. Are you going to streak Robbie Williams?

Mark: There's 125,000 people in the crowd there. But I'm with my friend and his son. I've come to watch Robbie Williams, but oh, it will be tempting.