iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 30/09/2026

Movements that rely on coercive control are a big problem. They may be religious, but there are many other types of cult both big and small. To learn more, get to @decult.bsky.social this Labour Weekend. Earlybird tickets end tomorrow! Virtual tickets also available. decult.net/conference-2...

Promo graphic: Decult Cult Awareness Conference 2026: Voices of Courage: Pathways to Healing and Justice. Keynote speakers: Rachel Bernstein and Dr Christine Marie. October 24 & 25, Christchurch Town Hall, Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Promo graphic: Decult Cult Awareness Conference 2026. Photo of Mark Darbyshire: MC, Revival church survivor, and actor.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 05/08/2026

Had a great time doing #48HoursNZ over the weekend – both helping my friend with his #film and making my own solo film. I can't wait for the Ōtautahi heats next week! It's so gratifying seeing an audience experience my work, and amazing to see everyone else's films and how talented everyone is.

Poster. Fruitstorm presents Elijah's Ladder, a solo film by Mark Darbyshire, made as part of 48Hours 2026. High-contrast image on an unusual angle showing a minimalist staircase inside a high-rise building winding up to a blinding light.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 18/05/2026

After 11 years, I've finally managed to convince HM Passport Office that I am in fact a British citizen.

Photo of Mark holding a British passport. He is wearing a floral top, blue glasses that look like stylised eyebrows, and standing in front of a pink fruity wallpaper.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 25/01/2026

The #NZ tour of Doomsday Comedy has two shows to go: #Wellington (Thursday 29 January) and #Christchurch (Waitangi Day Friday 6 February). Hilarious, heartwarming #comedy about #cults that brings beautiful, unexpected human connection. Ticket links in the thread. www.doomsdaycomedy.com

Image showing comedians against a stormy sky. The main comedian has devil horns. Doomsday Comedy. The tour continues – two shows to go! Supported by Decult: raising cult awareness. Wellington: Thursday 29 January. Christchurch: Friday 6 February.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 24/12/2025

Aw how lovely to see such a smile on Michael's face. Over $20k of the $50k has already been raised in this impromptu fundraiser.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 09/11/2025

It's going to need some darkening…

Mark smiling and sporting a light-coloured moustache. He also has dark blond hair and is wearing dark pink tortoiseshell glasses. He is standing in front of floral wallpaper.

Same view but this time Mark has a neutral facial expression.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 09/11/2025

I've grown my first ever moustache for this so you have to buy tickets. It's a privilege and a pleasure to be playing Dr Watson in this wonderfully creepy production under the directorship of Ross Gumbley. #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #theatre www.repertory.nz/show/the-hou...

Poster with a black background. Only the red demonic eyes of a hound are visible. The white text says: Canterbury Repertory Theatre, The Hound of the Baskervilles, 2025, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, adapted for the stage by Simon Williams, directed by Ross Gumbley, 7:30pm, 19–29 November, Elmwood Auditorium, www.repertory.nz, a community theatre production by special arrangement with Joseph Weinberg and The Play Bureau.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 20/07/2025

If you're seeing this, post a pic on your device without context.

A silver-coloured metallic coat hook on the doorframe of a pub toilet. Big ears have been drawn on either side with a permanent marker to make it look like an elephant. The hook is its trunk and the two Phillips screws are its eyes.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 18/07/2025

Newsflash! I've been added to the lineup for TID Talks tonight 8pm at Good Times Comedy Club. I look very serious about this one but I assure you it will be very silly. #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #NZ #comedy

Image showing Mark Darbyshire and the other people on the line-up: Eve, Vic, Tim, Jo, Tama, Ben, and Lark.

Tid Talks Friday 18 July 2025 8pm at Good Times Comedy Club, Christchurch, featuring: Tama Alexander, Dr Jo Prendergast, Mark Darbyshire, Lark Wilson, and Ben Vyas, with slides by Eve Wingerath. Tid: ideas not worth spreading. Tickets start at $10 from Humanitix.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 09/07/2025

The new Milk Bar inside Five Lanes at the BNZ Centre has #vegan soft serve! #Ōtautahi #Christchurch (Also, I didn't take a photo, but this week's chef's special at GG Bistro is delicious! The smokiest, meatiest mushroom I've ever tasted, on top of a yummy potato salad.)

Photo of a business called The Milk Bar. The vegan soft serve cone costs $4.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 12/06/2025

This Matariki I'll be thinking a lot about my late grandparents, three of whom we lost over the past year. It's been special reminiscing on the good times and everything they gave to make me who I am today. So many beautiful photos and memories.

Toddler Mark on a couch with his Gramps, Grandma, Nana, and Grandad. Everyone is smiling.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 10/04/2025

I should probably share this link for the play I'm in until 19 April! www.riccartonplayers.co.nz/book-tickets #theatre #actor #Ōtautahi #Christchurch

Poster with an illustration of a residential street at night. There is a dead dog in the foreground with a gardening fork lodged in its body. The poster says: Riccarton Players, presented in association with New Zealand Play Bureau Ltd. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. A play by Simon Stephens, based on the novel by Mark Haddon. 9 to 19 April 2025. Directed by Caitlyn O'Rourke assisted by Luke Longworth. Book now! Phone 03 338 4699 or visit www.riccartonplayers.co.nz.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 31/03/2025

It's been an emotional few days with the loss of my dear Nana, the last of my grandparents, at the age of 87. We've poured so much of our energy into caring for her these last few years, so it feels odd for it all to come to an end.

Photo of Gramps, Nana, and toddler Mark. Nana has a beautiful smile and is holding a puzzle toy that they have just given him (presumably for his birthday).

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 07/03/2025

Rummikub but with letters. Each turn's score is the number of letters in the longest word you make, and double if you put down all your tiles. You're meant to finish your turn within one minute, but once I realised it must be possible to make antidisestablishmentarianism, I couldn't not.

Plastic Rummikub tiles on a wooden coffee table in an apartment, but with black letters instead of coloured numbers. The following words have been made: peel, corn, rhythm, chord, clog, puff, text, sprawl, antidisestablishmentarianism, pantos, jute, quavering, week, duck. In the background are some colourful socks on a clothes horse and a glass sliding door leading to a balcony at night. My friend's arm is visible in the side of the photo.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 04/12/2024

These slides show @jlalich.bsky.social's: • definition of a #cult • explanation of what's wrong with cults • Bounded Choice model. It all feels very familiar, describing my upbringing in The Revival Fellowship – except maybe for the charismatic leader. 2/4

A presentation slide with the following text:

Definition:

Held together by a shared commitment to a "charismatic" authoritarian leader.

Upholds a transcendent belief system that includes a recipe for personal transformation.

Requires a high-level of commitment in words and deeds.

A presentation slide with the following text:

What's wrong with cults?

Deny basic freedoms: Thought. Movement. Assocation. Speech.

Stunt mental growth: Not thinking for yourself. Mind atrophies.

Hinder human development: Emotional stunting. Not experience normal life processes, including reactions & adaptations.

A presentation slide entitled "Choices are limited by outside world and inner life."

There is a diagram of a quadrant. In the centre is a person. The top-left is labelled "charismatic authority", with the person labelled "love & fear". The top-right is labelled "transcendent belief system", with the person labelled "purpose & commitment". The bottom-left is labelled "systems of control", with the person labelled "duty & guilt". The bottom-right is labelled "systems of influence", with the person labelled "identification & unity with the group".

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 20/11/2024

This apple crumble cocktail was amazing though. Can't recommend Arbour Woodfired Pizza in Lyttelton highly enough.

Mark thoughtfully rotates his cocktail in a funky cocktail glass with a curved stem (getting it in the right position for a photo). It's a foamy white cocktail with a dried apple on top, a dusting of cinnamon, and a short metal straw. He's wearing a floral polo shirt, blue denim jacket with rainbow-striped sleeves, and pink tortoiseshell glasses.

Mark has a wide grin on his face while he looks at a photo of him on his floral phone which his partner is holding up to him. Someone else is taking a photo of the cocktail. In the foreground are some fries and a pretty garnished berry cider.

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Mark Darbyshire🌱🏳️‍🌈 @markd.nz · 19/11/2024

Today I'm taking a longer, more meandering walk in the Port Hills than anticipated and I just found this little guy on the path. #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #skink #lizard

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