Comedian Dave Gorman visits Hanley’s Victoria Hall

Mar 17 2010 by Will Harris, Crewe Chronicle

Sparky comedian Dave Gorman is back for another dose of laughs at the Victoria Hall in Hanley – only this time he won’t have saddle-sores!

The 39-year-old is back in his native Staffordshire for a repeat of last year’s sell-out show for those who missed it.

Thankfully for Dave, this time he won’t have cycled miles from his previous venue to get there and he hopes he might get a chance to catch up with his family.

He said: “Last time I did it my mum, two brothers and their wives came and it’s a chance to see them and show off a bit.

“It depends on everything else going on around the show and where you are the night before and after, but you might turn up, have a couple of hours to set up and them leave straight away.

“It is exhausting but I’m not complaining. Compared to other jobs it’s a joy.”

During his 2009 tour Dave completed more than 1,600 miles on a journey that sent him to 32 venues across the UK.

But despite the concept ranking alongside previous eccentric stunts such as Are You Dave Gorman? – where he travelled the UK and USA finding people with the same name as him – or his Googlewhack Adventure, the Sit Down, Pedal, Pedal, Stop and Stand Up tour was never planned to happen.

“It wasn’t meant to be like that,” he said. “It wasn’t like ‘I’ve got an idea, let’s do a tour by bike’.

“I was thinking of doing a big bike ride anyway with no gigs involved as one of those weird things you feel like doing when you approach 40. I guarantee there are five fat middle-aged accountants setting off from John O’Groats to Land’s End as we speak. I was one of those guys, who wanted to see if I could do anything of that nature.

“So I found out the south, north, east and western points, thinking that I’d never heard of anyone doing the four cardinal points before.

“Then one day in a conversation with my manager he was persuading me to go back on tour. I said I didn’t want to because I was doing other things. I thought I can’t do it in the autumn because I’ve got this bike ride.

“And that was the moment. If we were in a boy band that was the moment of stepping off the stools with the key change.”

Getting married later in the year and approaching 40, it was the impetus Dave needed after 20 years in the business, a career he remembers getting into at the tender age of 19.

“Leaving Stafford when I was 18, the easiest route was going to uni,” he said. “I sort of think once I got to Manchester I’d achieved my objective. Getting the degree didn’t seem important.

“I was studying maths more as a way of leaving home. I always wanted to be a writer more than anything else and I suppose I am now.

“I was lucky I was at university doing my first gig at 19. I had the fearlessness of youth and didn’t have anything to lose. You did it for free until someone paid you. People always ask how I got in but they don’t believe me when I tell them there’s no shortcut. If there was we would all have taken it.”

Straight after the tour he gets down to work on a second series of his radio-turned-TV show Genius, but beyond that Dave says there is no plan.

“I try not to plan anything to far ahead because life become very boring if you do,” he said. “I’m sure there will be a chance in the future for people to see me. If I was saying every autumn I’m doing a new show I’m sure there would a market for it but what would I be writing about?

“It’s better giving the time to get the life experience behind it, otherwise I’ve got nothing to tell you.”

Dave Gorman visits the Victoria Hall tomorrow (Thursday) at 8pm. Tickets are £18.50. To book, call the box office on 0871 871 7649.