Renown comedian Danny Bhoy is embarking on a 2013 international tour, but this one is different to the shows we’ve come to know and love.  Instead of his traditional stand-up, Danny has written a multitude of letters on behalf of the ones we never scribed.  Dear Epson is an original concept that’s show to have audiences in stitches.  Danielle Muir chats to him about his upcoming tour and thoughts on what it’s like to make a career out of comedy.

TOM: Can you remember your first comedy gig?

Danny: Oh yeah, god yeah.  I was in Edinburgh and I went to a pub.  There was an open mic night on and I just sort of put my name down.  My name got called up and I walked on stage and I was terrified.  I still can’t really remember what I said but whatever it was it seemed to go quite well.
TOM: Is that when you thought ‘alright maybe I can do this for a career?’

Danny: Yeah – I think I woke up the next morning going ‘did I really do that? Yeah I think I did’ and then I thought I should start looking to do more and more.  It was purely by chance really.

TOM: Well it’s very lucky that you went on stage that night.

Danny: Yeah, well I think I was always a bit of a class joker but I didn’t really anticipate it being a proper career until I did that open spot.  I didn’t even know that comedy could be a career.  It’s pretty amazing what happened.

TOM: What would you call your style of humour?  Could you label it or is it just straight comedy?

Danny: Uh, I suppose I’d like to think it’s storytelling rather than actual jokes.  I don’t really like jokes.  It’s the worst thing in the world when you meet a drunk uncle at a wedding and he says ‘tell us a joke’ and you go ‘I don’t know any jokes’ and he says ‘oh, I thought you were the comedian’.  Sit down, take a seat and I’ll tell you a story but I don’t really know any jokes so it’s kind of a weird thing.  A comedian that doesn’t have jokes.  There’s a headline.

TOM: I’ve noticed that a lot of your material is based on observations of cultures, or wherever you are at the time – do you think that people like to laugh at themselves the most?  Is that why you perform such material?

Danny: I think you can just really always talk about the thing that’s most important in your life.  I’m sure if I had a kid or a girlfriend I’d talk about that but I don’t, so my life is really travelling and observing different countries and cultures.  So that’s pretty much been the large sections of my standup for the last 5 or 6 years, just about my observations of places.  I’m very lucky to go to these places.  But this show is different, this new one.

TOM: Tell us about the new show – the subject is letters that were never written because life’s too short, is that right?

Danny: Well it’s letters that I think other people wouldn’t write because they think life’s too short but I’m writing them on their behalf.  The show really came from one letter I wrote to Epson which are a printer company, and I wrote to them to ask them how on earth they got to the price of their ink.
TOM: I have an Epson printer too – it’s pretty ridiculous.

Danny: Ridiculous right?  I mean the ink’s more expensive than the printer – it’s all very tongue in cheek.  So I read it out on stage, I wasn’t planning to but I just read it out, and it went down really well.  The general feedback was ‘can we get more of that.’  So I started sitting down and actually writing to people and companies and places that pissed me off for many years and it became an exercise in catharsis more than anything else.  I felt like I was exercising these demons I’ve had for many years.  It felt really good – the fact that people laugh is a bonus.
TOM: There must have been a lot of companies that have pissed you off because obviously you can make a full shows worth of material.

Danny: What I try and avoid is hitting companies, because everyone knows that these guys are pricks.  I start off with a couple of – I try and make the issues more specific, because the more specific they are the funnier they are .

TOM: Because more people can relate to them?

Danny: Yeah.  Also there’s more originality in those ideas, with people going ‘oh yeah I’d never really thought about that, but yeah why does that happen?’  And the show sort of starts with the bigger issues and then slowly over the course of the show I get down to the more personal stuff.  I end up writing to old school teachers over one incident you know.  It’s quite interesting the way the arc of the show goes.

TOM:  You’ve been on tour every year since 2006 – where do you find the time to create new material?

Danny: I usually have about a three month gap after Australia and New Zealand and that’s when I write a new show for Edinburgh.  And Edinburgh is where I premiere the show in my hometown.  And then I take that to the UK and then North America but I usually have the ideas by then.  If I think of something I’ll jot it down.  I am one of these comedians who tends to sit at a desk and actually plot it, plot where it’s going and why it’s going.

TOM: Are there some countries that seem to respond better to your style of comedy?

Danny: I tend to find the shows that I enjoy most are probably in Scotland and here because I think there’s a very similar approach to comedy.  People here and in Scotland, you can take your time over a joke.  You can enjoy the journey rather than just the end.  And half the fun is getting there when you tell a story so I find that people here enjoy that and people in Scotland enjoy that, so I think they’re my two favourite places to spin a yarn.
TOM: Any places where it just doesn’t work at all?

Danny: Oh absolutely, yeah.  Not for a while but I used to do shows in obscure parts of England.  More gigs than shows – when you start touring people already know a bit about you so they’re on your side a bit.  But when you do gigs in the early days some people just stared at me, and that was the good gigs!  When people stared I didn’t mind, but it’s when people start throwing stuff that’s when you really start to worry.
TOM: That’s a bit harsh.

Danny: I remember on my ninth gig I did a late show in a really raucous part of London, and I’d had eight open spots and they’d all gone really really well, so I was thinking ‘this is going to be great.’  And it was a real eye opener because I walked on stage and someone heckled and I couldn’t deal with it.  Next thing a plastic glass came towards my head, and people started screaming and showing and I thought ‘fuck!’  And I went off and thought ‘I have to rethink this whole comedy thing.’  My thing is now just trying to avoid getting hurt (laughs)

TOM: Are there any themes or subjects that you find are just comedy goldmines?

Danny: Not really.  I think you can make anything comedy gold.  There’s no such thing as something that’s funnier than something else, because really it’s about how you develop an idea or a notion, and the more original it is the better.  But I don’t think there’s any single idea that’s better, because otherwise I think everyone would be doing it.
TOM: Who are some of your favourite comedians?  Was there anyone in particular who inspired you to pursue a career in comedy?

Danny: I was obviously brought up with Billy Connelly so I knew his stuff before I knew anything else.  That was the big comic when I was growing up as a kid.  Obviously since then I’ve got interest in lots of other standups.  I’m sort of friends with the people I really like now.  It’s always good to count people you admire amongst your friends, that’s sort of the aim of life so I’m quite lucky in that sense.  I get very inspire by different styles of comedy, I like to mix it up so I don’t necessarily enjoy comedy that’s like mine, I enjoy comedy that’s different from mine.

TOM: I have one more question – what makes Danny Bhoy laugh?

Danny: Kids.  Kids make me laugh a lot.  I think I get the biggest actual guffaws from my nieces and nephews just because they say the most ridiculous things and there’s an innocence about it you know, you don’t get that from adults.  Adults, we’re all very self-aware of what we’re saying a lot of the time so, you know, we’ll come up with funny stuff but there’s something beautifully innocent and non-self-aware about kids that can make them say something that makes me egg myself.
TOM: Thanks for your time and we look forward to seeing you on your Australian tour.

Danny: Thankyou.

Danny Bhoy will be touring Australia from February to April.  Tickets can be booked on www.dannybhoy.com