Dave Gorman back in the cycle of stand-up

Dave Gorman rarely takes the easy route to a laugh. Having transformed the comedy landscape with his quest-based, storytelling shows, he’s back performing conventional stand-up. Except that he’s also currently cycling 50 miles a day between gigs as part of a 1500-mile tour from the southernmost to the northernmost tips of mainland Britain, taking in the most easterly and westerly points along the way. ‘Shortly after we finished recording Genius [for BBC2], I started doing a bit of stand-up again in London, keeping it secret from everyone,’ Gorman explains. ‘Just cycling to a club and asking if I could have ten minutes.’

Finally rumbled by his manager, they planned a national tour and he figured why not cycle between each venue? Now he’s hastily reacquainting himself with life in the stand-up saddle. ‘It took a while to get fluid, I still feel a bit rusty at times,’ he confesses. ‘But it’s exciting because it’s like a hobby again. I’m carrying a notebook for the first time in years and finding my head overflowing with ideas.’

His ‘beautiful’ bike is better prepared, an £800 racer lent to him by Olympic champion turned designer Chris Boardman. ‘Bless him, the man is a hero. It’s quite possible he will accompany me for a leg in Scotland.’ The ‘moderately fit’ comedian is also appealing for local cyclists to join him with the sort of advice ‘my sat nav can’t give me. If anyone can give me that sort of headstart and sneakily be a windbreak for me, that’ll make the journey easier’. Not too many though, because he doesn’t want to be ‘constantly worrying, “are we all still here; is anyone under a lorry?”’

Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Mon 21 Sep

More: Comedy, Bikes, Chris Boardman, Cycling, Dave Gorman

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