David Walliams OBE has spent a career amassing fans of all ages: with his adults-only sketch comedy on 'Little Britain', as a mainstream TV identity on 'Britain’s Got Talent', and as this generation’s Roald Dahl with his 37 million-selling kids books.
In his September tour of Australia, he will draw these worlds together, with day-time, family-friendly book shows, and a no-holds-barred evening show featuring sketch characters, never-before-seen clips, behind-the-scenes stories, and opportunities to ask David anything you like. It could veer off into uncharted waters, which is just how he likes it.
When IT systems crashed across the globe recently, grounding planes and grinding supermarket checkouts to a halt, tabloids stole a famous Walliams line: ‘Computer says no’; a line he delivered in drag as obstinate customer service drone Carol Beer. Walliams never expected to shape the shared language of the planet so profoundly, but jokes “long may it continue”.
“You can’t contrive these things. It started off with a comedy sketch, me and Matt laughing in a room together. It was a headline in a newspaper in the UK as well. I went to Iceland to do some book events and the organisers said it’s an everyday phrase in Iceland. I’ve never been there before. It’s very pleasing,” Walliams says.
While the cultural impact of the 'Little Britain' characters has lived for almost two decades since the series went off the air, it was only the beginning of Walliams' creative output. His books, beginning with 'The Boy In The Dress' and 'Mr Stink', have been compared to the creator of 'Charlie And The Chocolate Factory', 'The Witches' and more, Roald Dahl. Walliams’ early books were even illustrated by Dahl collaborator Quentin Blake.
“Quentin Blake’s amazing. I was starstruck meeting him let alone getting to work with him. It was one of the happiest moments I’ve ever had in my life and what he brought to my words, you can’t put a value on it because he made my words sing like they wouldn’t otherwise without those incredible illustrations.” As his first favourite author, Dahl’s sense of humour undoubtedly helped to shape Walliams’ comedic sensibilities.
“I think what’s so special about his work is these are the books that you choose to read as a child: they’re not the books you’re told to read. You actually want to read them because you know they’re going to be funny, a little bit anarchic. they are going to feel a bit forbidden. You’re going to want to read them under the mattress with a torch.”
In both his family-friendly and evening shows, which are mostly meticulously structured affairs, Walliams will invite his fans to ask anything: even the forbidden.
“I’m really looking forward to it because it is of course the unknown, but I also think if you can come back with something funny in those moments, audiences quite like it. One because I think people like it if someone can make a joke at my expense and two they quite like if something is totally spontaneous: it’s only happened on that night, will never happen again and part of it is very exciting. It’s like a comedian putting down a heckler.”
“I do that in the kids show as well. Sometimes they say really funny things. Sometimes on purpose or sometimes inadvertently. I remember one time saying: 'have you got a brother or sister who should be in ‘The World’s Worst Children', and a boy said 'my little brother'. I said 'what did he do wrong' and he said 'he got born'.”
Tenacious D’s recent tour was a reminder of the dangers of improvised stage humour in a polarised time, but Walliams thinks the reaction was disproportionate.
“If you go on to social media after any big news story, there’s loads and loads of jokes out there; they’re sharing with friends in WhatsApp groups. Some of them are in bad taste. If you make a joke in bad taste, it’s not the end of the world and it shouldn’t be the end of the world.”
“It was done at a gig and obviously now people film it and it gets out. If it hadn’t been filmed, who would care about it? It was definitely bad taste but I quite like bad taste humour. News stories come and go so quickly and Donald Trump has said much more offensive things than Tenacious D.”
“We shouldn’t lose sight of the ability for art to shock and offend, and believe that art should be for everybody because not everybody likes the same things. If I was around at my mum’s house I wouldn’t put on the Sex Pistols' 'Never Mind The Bollocks' because she wouldn’t like it. She’s 80 years old and would much rather listen to The Everly Brothers.”
Even Walliams’ childhood literary idol, Dahl, has been subject to retrospective criticism in the current climate, but Walliams believes we shouldn’t apply contemporary cultural norms to historical works.
“If we want to go round changing everything we don’t like from the past, we won’t learn anything from the past either. . . Because 2024 is not year dot. In five years’ time, the culture will have changed and there will be new sensibilities about things. Are we going to go back and change everything we don’t like? We’ll just drive ourselves mad!”
If you like what Walliams does, make sure you head along to one or both of his shows. . . But maybe don’t film and share it.
An Audience With David Walliams 2024 Australia Tour Dates
6-7 September – Darling Harbour Theatre (Sydney)12 September – Royal Theatre (Canberra)
15 September – Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
18 September – The Star (Gold Coast)
21 September – Adelaide Entertainment Centre
25 September – Civic Theatre (Newcastle)
5 October – Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre
8 October – Wrest Point (Hobart)
12 October – Riverside Theatre (Perth)
The David Walliams Book Show 2024 Australia Tour Dates
7 September – Darling Harbour Theatre (Sydney)15 September – Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
21 September – Adelaide Entertainment Centre
5 October – Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre
12 October – Riverside Theatre (Perth)
