Dave Gorman's Blog, page 31

Free Bowling

Night Bowling, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

Sometimes you say things and you're not really expecting anyone to take them seriously... but they do.

A short while ago I was chatting to my publisher about my new book. It's about playing games and in a moment of idle chit-chattery I found myself saying, "Wouldn't it be great if we encouraged readers to play a game of some kind."

I wasn't asking him to make it happen. I was just, y'know, chatting.

But they took me at my word and have come up with a promotion that makes me giggle. The first 1000 people who pre-order the book (through a particular amazon.co.uk page) will get a free game of ten pin bowling.

Ta dah!

The link is here: http://amzn.to/DGBowl

Oh... and the bowling alleys are in the UK... but there are lots of them. Go read. Go bowl.

New Tour

I'm loving the Screen Guild gigs and I'm really happy with the material that's emerged from them so far... so I've decided to do another tour. The show will be shaped by a powerpoint presentation... hence the title, Dave Gorman's Powerpoint Presentation.

There are a few warm up dates scheduled at the end of September and start of October and then the tour will run to the end of November.

Tickets went on general sale today... and all the dates and details are on the live dates page of my site: here.

Don't Hate On Kate

Don't Hate On Kate, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

Dave On Dave Action. Thursday. 9pm.

The stand-up show I filmed in Birmingham in February goes out this week. On Thursday. The 28th. At 9pm. On Dave.

I'm holding a Staffordshire Bull Terrier in the photo because the dog and I both appear in a short VT about my home town - Stafford - which is at the start of the show.

It was a really fun live show and I think they've done a grand job in the edit. I hope you can watch it.

In the spirit of full disclosure I feel I ought to say that it does contain material from the last tour.

It also contains sets by the brilliant Isy Suttie and Simon Evans. I was really chuffed when they both said they'd do it. I think the three of us makes for a good blend as we each push at slightly different comic doors.

On the night of course it wasn't just the three of us. No, no. This series the nice people at Dave added in an extra act to a) give the punters more fun on the night and b) get some extra footage for their website etc. I love Ellis James and thought we were very lucky to get him. Here's a short clip from the night.



Thanks to everyone who's pointed out on twitter that I'm getting a little porky. I was writing a book at the time. It involves sitting down and eating biscuits. I'm getting slimmer now. But thanks for your concern. Oh... no... not concern. Mockery. That's it.

Did I mention the time? It's on Thursday, April 28th. 9pm.

I imagine you-know-who will be watching it to help calm his nerves on the night before his big day. And no doubt she'll be watching too.

Then again, maybe they won't.

Karaoke Circus

It's taken me a while to sort through my photos but it's worth saying that last Saturday's Karaoke Circus gig was hugely enjoyable.

I'm a one-trick pony when it comes to karaoke. I can't sing but I will stage dive and I hope that having a fat man throw himself on to the heads of the audience will make them forget how bad his singing voice was.

It seems to work. It's easier when there's a raised stage and a standing audience obviously. At the Leicester Square Theatre where the seating is fixed and has hard wooden edges it's a bit trickier.

I had to do some cajoling to persuade people to gather at the front and to begin with they were just grinning at me in a Yeah!-As-if-you're-really-going-to-do-that kind of a way. I was. And I did.

But the best thing was that I got my song out of the way early and could then relax and watch the show properly. I think a big part of the show's appeal is in watching performers step out of their comfort zone.

Highlights for me were Laurence & Gus's performance of Youssou N'Dour and Neneh Cherry's 7 Seconds, Simon Amstell doing Enrique Iglesias's Hero Tony Gardner doing Wheatus's Teenage Dirtbag and two punters whose names escape me - and who didn't know each other - doing an amazingly spirited version Stan by Eminem and Dido.

But if you've never been to a Karaoke Circus show before there's a lot more to it than that. My radio colleagues - Martin and Danielle - really do put on a fab show and they've created a show that incubates a supportive atmosphere for everyone who takes part. It is karaoke without cynicism and with dollops of silly. It is a good thing.

Screen Guild 2

My new monthly show - Dave Gorman's Screen Guild - returns tonight. I really enjoyed the first one and I'm looking forward to night two.

I'm enjoying the pressure to come up with new stuff but it does make the day of the gig pretty labour intensive.

Because I'm doing these shows to experiment with stuff I couldn't do in regular clubs - stuff that involves the projector and screen - I build a new powerpoint presentation for each one so it isn't just sketching some ideas out in a notepad.

I doubt the audience from the first one will believe me but there were over 500 slides in the presentation for that show and there are likely to be more in this. That's because of the way I like to manipulate powerpoint to make things arrive, disappear and make the audience all (hopefully) see the same detail at the same time.

It makes the day of the show very busy because no matter what's already been planned and what's written on the day the visual side of it can't really be built and structured in advance. But I'm enjoying it. In fact it turns out to be a good way of focussing the mind. I have a very visual memory and I find that not only do I write more when I'm putting the presentation together but that it's a little easier to keep it in my head too.

I've got some great guests lined up for tonight (there are four each show) but there's no point going into detail as it's sold out. (It is a smallish venue) But there are tickets available for the next three if you fancy coming along: details here.