One Man Against The World

He introduces his new show, Two Sugars S’il Vous Plait.

“I’m beginning to wonder if that whole drunken bet was a good idea after all,” he says.

“Making a cup of tea for everyone in Belgium? What was I thinking?

I haven’t even looked up the French word for tea, I’m so crazy! Why do I get myself into these heartwarming scrapes?”

If it sums up the way some people view the comedian, it doesn’t bother the man himself.

He’s travelled the world to meet people who share his name and tried to cross America without ever using a chain store. While “testing” whether astrology works, he found himself standing on one leg in Covent Garden with his foot in a bucket of water, a tangerine in his hand and three books balanced on his head.

He’s well aware his career may come across as an overextended student rag week.

“I know some people think that’s what I’m like, but they’re generally the people who haven’t seen the shows or read my books and there’s no point worrying what people who don’t know you think of you – you’d never sleep. The fact is, I never contrive a story for the sake of an audience because then it wouldn’t be true. There’s always more to it than that.”

It’s a point the 40-year-old makes repeatedly during our chat. Take his 2003 show Googlewhack. In essence, it was about what happened when he became obsessed by Googlewhacks (when an internet search produces only one hit).

Actually, he says, it was a story about having a breakdown.

He was meant to be writing a novel, got distracted and spent the advance on an international jaunt “researching” Googlewhacks.

The publishers didn’t want to read about how he’d misspent their money, so he created the stage show to try to recoup it.

What about his latest book, Dave Gorman Vs The World, in which he travels the length and breadth of the UK playing games with strangers? He claims that evolved naturally too. “I was thinking about the coming weekend and put a thing on Twitter saying, ‘Does anyone want to play a game?’ Loads of people said yes. I had some free time and it was a nice way of sticking a pin in a map to see where to go. I’m very indecisive and I’d like to go everywhere.

This was a good way of picking and choosing.”

Gorman is under no illusion about what he does, though. He knows much of it is only viable because he’s an established name. “I don’t think I’m particularly unusual or obsessive.

What I do have is a bit more freedom and a bit more time.

I think lots of people would be just as inquisitive and curious if they didn’t have kids to take to school or a nine-to-five to worry about. Being a performer means you’re allowed to give your personality free rein.”

Anyway, the show he’s currently touring, Dave Gorman’s Powerpoint Presentation, has no theme. It’s a return to stand-up without a particular story, though informed by the same, ‘What would happen if…?’ mentality of his narrative shows. His previous outing which, fans may recall, involved him travelling 1,600 miles by bike, reminded him how much he loved doing stand-up of a “straighter”

bent. “That show was me dipping my toe back in the water and this one is me diving in and rolling around in the mud.

It’s not that I got weary of those storytelling shows, it’s more that you can’t just make one happen.”

Gorman grew up in Stafford, where there was a noticeable absence of comedy clubs.

Instead, he consumed every TV show going, went to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with his youth theatre group and “feasted” on comedy there, before embarking on a maths degree at Manchester University.

At the end of his first year, he made his first forays into performing and abruptly stopped going to any lectures from then on in. His maths degree remains uncompleted.

“I don’t regret it in the slightest,” he says of dropping out. “I know what I’m like. If I’d had a safety net, I’d have used it. I’m lazy by nature and if I give myself a choice, I’ll take the easier, safer route. If I hadn’t dropped out and had hedged my bets, I would never have been good enough for comedy because I wouldn’t have forced myself to be.” And he’s never had doubts about his chosen path? Perhaps when standing in Covent Garden with his foot in a bucket of water and a tangerine in his hand? “No.” There’s a longish pause. “I love doing what I do.”

It didn’t happen overnight.

For the first few years, Gorman forced himself to do something comedy-related each and every day. “I’m quite proud and defiant and there was no way on earth I was going to be wrong about dropping out.”

Eventually, he was taken on as a writer for TV series including The Mrs Merton Show and The Fast Show, and for comics such as Steve Coogan and Harry Hill. His first stand-up show was 1998’s Reasons To Be Cheerful, in which he dissected Ian Dury’s song, lyric by lyric. But it wasn’t until Are You Dave Gorman?

– the result of a drunken bet with flatmate Danny Wallace [who has gone on to make a name for himself in very similar fashion to his friend] – that Gorman hit the big time.

Aside from the zany concept – attempting to meet the 54 people who shared his name – he made waves by taking Powerpoint out of the office and on to the stage. Now, it’s a staple of the scene, along with its champion.

“I don’t feel I’m that wellknown,”

he says. “Some people think I’m famous but apologise for not having heard of me.

I’m never sure how to respond.

It supposes my ambition is for everyone to have heard of me and it really isn’t. We have this culture where everyone wants to be famous and anyone with a degree of fame is assumed to have the thing everyone wants. People assume that’s why you do what you do. But no one ever suggested Yehudi Menuhin picked up a violin because he wanted to be famous. What I do is so much fun and of course I want to sell tickets – there’s no point otherwise. But that’s different from wanting to be the most famous man in the world.”

He married his wife Beth, a radio producer, just over a year ago. They were introduced by comedy behemoth Armando Iannucci and within months, he’d proposed. He just knew?

“Yeah, I did.” She’s “fantastically supportive” he says. Even when he reveals the details of his latest mad idea? “We’re not children and I think she understands you can’t sub-divide people into the bits you like and the bits you don’t.” Nonetheless, he was sure to take the day off to mark their anniversary. “It was only a year ago… we still care about these things.”

He enjoys touring though, especially after the enforced isolation of writing a book.

“You go a bit mad. You need to go out on stage and see people. Then when you’ve toured a bit, you need to go home and be quiet.

Having the two things is really good.”

Before he goes, I have to ask him: what did he think of that Mitchell And Webb spoof?

“I thought it was very funny.

Though the first time I saw it, I called Robert [Webb] and told him off...”

l Dave Gorman’s Powerpoint Presentation is at the Theatre Royal Brighton on Sunday, October 30.

For tickets, call 0844 8717627.