Dave Gorman brings his comedy show to Birmingham

He will line up at the venue from Thursday before returning on January 27.

The man behind Dave TV’s hit show Modern Life Is Goodish as well as Are You Dave Gorman? and Googlewhack Adventure, is back on the road with a brand new live show, With Great PowerPoint Comes Great ResponsibilityPoint.

As the title suggests, he’s bringing his laptop and projector screen with him so expect more detailed analysis of those parts of life you’ve never stopped to think about before. Hey, not all heroes wear capes.

Dave was born in Stafford and studied mathematics at the University of Manchester but never graduated, dropping out after a year of study.

He made his name as a writer, working on three seasons of The Mrs Merton Show, as well as writing for many other television series, including The Fast Show. In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

Dave contributed as a producer to two series featuring Jenny Eclair and also wrote for the comedians Harry Hill and Steve Coogan.

His stand-up shows also achieved acclaim and he was nominated for a Perrier Award. Dave became famous for his Are You Dave Gorman? stage show for the 2000 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the television version of which was broadcast as The Dave Gorman Collection in 2001 over several episodes.

Are You Dave Gorman? was followed by several other filmed stand-up shows, most recently Modern Life is Goodish, which was broadcast between 2013 and 2017 on the Dave channel. Dave has also been a guest on other shows on Dave, such as Taskmaster and Go 8 Bit.

Dave works differently to many comedians and tries to avoid taking material from his own life into his work.

“I think, every now and then, something happens and a light goes on in the back of your head of, ‘Remember all this. Turn the tape recorder on in your head, because there’s something in this.’ Um, but no, I’ve never tried driving into the garage thinking, ‘Right, how’s this gonna yield joy?’ I don’t . . . I think the minute you start doing that, you start doing things differently. And then you’re just . . . it’s not an authentic experience, and then the material doesn’t ring true, because you slightly forced your hand. If that makes any sense at all? So, er, ‘no’ is the one word answer. And everything I said before no is the slightly clumsy longhand one.”

Dave has a reputation for being a geek but he says that’s quite wrong. He’s just a regular guy who’s happened to mine the minutiae of life to make people laugh.

“I think that reputation is because most men – especially in the media – who are about my age, and have a beard, and aren’t wearing a football shirt, are probably assumed to be geeks. And there’s probably some . . . that’s probably statistically about right, as well. You know, it’s always a safe assumption. And also, I sort of, I know I tick some of the boxes that people use to describe geekiness. I think I was actually really questioning whether or not . . . I don’t like sci-fi . . . but what is geeky about liking sci-fi?

“When Star Wars is like one of the biggest movie franchises in the world, you’re not an outsider. It’s the most mainstream thing you could possibly like. In which case, why are we defining it as a thing that’s separate? You might as well say you’re a geek for watching The X-Factor. It’s just mainstream culture. It’s not different and weird. It doesn’t set you apart from the rest of us in anyway. That’s what I don’t get. These things have now taken over. They’re huge.”

Dave’s breakthrough moment came following a drunken bet with his flatmate Danny Wallace. The bet was thus: Dave claimed that he shared the name ‘Dave Gorman’ with the assistant manager of East Fife F.C. and that there must be ‘loads’ of others around.

Danny disagreed with him, so the two travelled to Methil (about 450 miles from London), with a Polaroid camera, to meet the assistant manager, whose name was indeed Dave Gorman. The bet soon evolved into a monster as, on the way to meet Dave Gormans numbers four and five, Danny decided Dave must meet one for every card in the deck (including the Jokers).

His quest to meet this target was described, with highlights including: five people changing their names by deed poll (two of whom were women); a trip to New York that resulted in failure when he discovered the man he had gone to meet was not Dave Gorman, but B. David Gorman and therefore was ineligible; and the American journey included a meeting with an actor who had played a character called David Gorman, the validity of which was hotly contested in the book.

Since then, he’s enjoyed a slew of hits, including Dave Gorman’s Important Astrology Experiment, Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure, Genius and more.

He’s enjoyed his recent hit with Modern Life Is Goodish.

“The things I like most are . . . well, the thing I like about that is that part of the joke isn’t in the show, but you know it is happening. When you’re watching it, you know that the day that airs on the telly, they’re gonna have some people turning up. And that’s amusing you, even though you can’t see it. You’re not watching it, and you don’t get to witness the punch-line of the joke, but you know it exists. And that’s a really weird thing for a comedy show. That’s basically a joke that is happening in your imagination, because you know it is going to happen in the future. And that weirdly tickles you. Well, I don’t know, it does me anyway.”

Andy Richardson