Dane Baptiste talks ahead of Birmingham show

And now Dane Baptiste is back on the road, taking his third smash hit show on a national tour that calls in at Birmingham’s Glee Club tonight.

Original, provocative and exceptionally crafted, G.O.D. (Gold. Oil. Drugs) explores our worldwide pursuit of wealth, power and pleasure.

Dane has been seen on 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown (Channel 4), Mock the Week (BBC Two), Chris Ramsey’s Stand Up Central (Comedy Central) Tonight at the London Palladium (ITV1) and Live from the BBC (BBC Two).

And he’s made rapid progress as a stand-up comedian and writer after being nominated for the Best Newcomer at 2014’s Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards and filming a comedy series Sunny D on BBC Three in Spring 2016.

Dane hails from South East London and was the first black Briton to be nominated for Best Newcomer in Edinburgh. He was also nominated for a Chortle award in 2015.

Dane says earning success in Edinburgh gave his career a huge fillip. “It was funny, I was standing by a window really stressed, and my manager called and decided to do the Simon Cowell thing: ‘Dane, I’m really sorry to have to say this but . . . you’ve been nominated!’ and I was like ‘Dude, I’m BY A WINDOW. I’ve had enough stress, that’s not funny.’”

He enjoyed working on his BBC Three show, having been influenced by sitcoms while he was growing up.

“Around the 90s I started going to America, every two years I’d spend a few months in the States, so I became heavily influenced by US sketch shows like In Living Colour, then Moesha and Sister Sister. I probably got into stand-up in the late 90s, because a lot of people I saw were stand-ups to start with.

“In Living Colour was where Jim Carrey started, and Jamie Foxx. But also LL Cool J had a show, Queen Latifah had a show. When I got back to the UK I got a cable box, and I just gorged on comedy, all the time. I got the box set of Def Comedy Jam, then there was an explosion of American shows – Roseanne, Grace Under Fire, Margaret Cho had a show, I loved all of them. But I was also really into animation. The Simpsons, that changed my life.”

Dane enjoyed writing that show and worked with a team who helped bring his ideas to life.

“I wrote it and Rhys James did some editing, because I was aware of his experience writing punchlines – he added a few adlibs, probably about six lines. But the other comics on the show, I kept it skeletal, so ‘if there’s anything you can adlib, feel free.’

“Katherine Ryan, there were a few cutaway scenes where she could add stuff that were amazing. Danny Gray – Slim – he’s enormous on the black circuit and I wanted to give him this exposure, he was great. I wrote the characters with these people in mind, almost like cheating! Like I was just putting together a comedy night, people I know are good and can deliver.”

He decided to pursue a career in stand-up because making people laugh was his greatest skill. He says stand-up chose him, rather than him choosing stand-up.

“On reflection now, I had to do it. I always thought I should have a high powered job in the city that involved a suit, because I thought that’s what my mum wanted, and that’s why that also happens in Sunny D. But I always gravitated towards stand-up.

“I like the freedom of it. A lot of my inspirations were quite socially active. Stand-up, there’s a quasi-journalism to it. It often leads to activism, because you’re talking about what’s going on.”

He was thrilled to be asked to do Live At The Apollo.

“My friend posted the Apollo bit on Facebook, and it got loads of views, but one guy was like ‘well I don’t like this, I don’t think this is a very good attempt at comedy.’ I clicked on his profile and there are confederate flags behind him. And the thing is, that’s good, because I’m writing it to upset him, that’s the point. If you’re annoyed off by it, my job is done, because I’m making fun of you, I’ve achieved the objective.”