Internationally-renowned Scottish comedian Danny Bhoy returns to Oz with his brand new show 'Age Of Fools'.
After touring the show in the UK for the past year, Danny returns to our shores to talk Brexit, Trump, world issues and climate change in his most grown-up show to date.
“This is easily my favourite show I’ve ever written and it’s easily the funniest [because] politically, the big issues that I started talking about a year ago are still big issues,” Danny explains.
“I’ve got two or three routines in particular at the moment that are, I think, my favourite routines that I’ve ever done. The jokes have gotten stronger because I have added to them rather than having to completely drop them, and that’s a really good sign, because if I’ve still got the same subject and I’m still adding to it a year later, it’s because I still like it and I still like performing it.”
The comedian’s low-key run of ‘work in progress’ shows at last year’s Adelaide Fringe served as a rehearsal for 'Age Of Fools', with Danny’s last-minute addition to the programme and choice of intimate venue deliberate strategies by the comic.
“I think quite a lot of people were totally surprised to see me [at Adelaide Fringe 2018] doing a room above a pub for a month. It did look like my career had taken a huge nosedive over the past three years,” he laughs.
“But I really wanted to try a new show out, and to work it up at a time where I could do an hour every night in a small venue at a festival where I’d get an audience, and where there was no pressure on me to perform a polished show.
“And so I snuck in under the radar, and it was just one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. I more or less wrote the whole show in that month. It has changed a bit since then, but it is certainly a show that benefited from a month in Adelaide, and I learned a lot.”
Discussing his growth as a comedian, Danny says delivering comedy is no longer about getting as many laughs as possible, but rather making jokes fit in with the mood he is trying to set for a particular show.
“Every Monday night I usually drop in at a new act night in Edinburgh, and there’s all these young kids who get up and do their five minutes, and I never get the most laughs of the night even though I’ve been doing it for twenty years, but I get the biggest laughs and that’s what I like.
“I’m not interested in a machine gun approach to comedy. I like to set a story and get people drawn in and then attach myself almost to them like a tentacle, and then when the laugh comes it’s big because you feel like they’ve invested in it.” With Australia’s revolving door of politics continuing to provide comic fodder, Danny is looking forward to once again applying his unique brand of observational storytelling to the latest leadership spill.
“The great thing about Australian politics is that the more it changes the more it stays the same. The temptation is to repeat jokes I did four years ago. I might even start with the same opening line,” he laughs.
Danny Bhoy Tour Dates 2019
12-17 March – Royalty Theatre (Adelaide Fringe)19-24 March – Powerhouse Theatre (Brisbane Comedy Festival)
26 March-7 April – Athenaeum Theatre (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)
16 April – Arts Centre Melbourne (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)
