Are You Dave Gorman?
 | |
| Author | Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Documentary comedy novel |
| Publisher | Ebury Press |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-0-09-188471-0 |
| OCLC | 49594425 |
| Followed by | Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure |
Are You Dave Gorman? is the title of a stage show by the British documentary comedian Dave Gorman and the book of the same name, co-written by Gorman and Danny Wallace. The BBC television series The Dave Gorman Collection— Gorman's first television show—was based on the show. The original show was created for the 2000 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was nominated for a prestigious Perrier award. An extended version of the show was taken to the West End, then to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (where it was nominated for a Barry Award), the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado (where it won the Jury Award for Best One Person Show) and finally to New York where it ran for more than three months and was named Best Comedy Show of 2001 by Time Out New York.
Evolution
The show originated following a drunken bet between Dave Gorman and his friend Danny Wallace. The bet was thus: Gorman claimed that he shared the name "Dave Gorman" with the assistant manager of East Fife F.C. and that there must be "loads" of others around. Wallace disagreed with him. So the two travelled to Methil (from London – several hundred miles), with a polaroid camera, to meet the assistant manager, whose name was indeed Dave Gorman. More trips followed, to meet more Dave Gormans. During a trip to New York, Gorman applied somewhat arbitrary criteria to exclude one man from the list on the grounds that a metal plaque outside his offices showed his name as "B. David Gorman" (his justification for this – given on his web forum – was "You've got to have rules"). He did, however, count meeting an actor who had once played a character called Dave Gorman.
Initially the bet was fairly vague, but on the way to meet Dave Gormans numbers three and four, they debated what "loads" meant. Danny decided on one for every card in the deck; that is, 54 (including jokers). They also try to keep within a distance of 300–500 miles per Dave Gorman (mpdg), because under 300 means the name was too common, whilst over 500 means it is too obscure.
Stage show
To aid the search, which by his own admission became scarily serious, Gorman created a stage-show about their travels that was also used to appeal for further Dave Gormans to come forward. The show was called Are You Dave Gorman?. This acquired something of a cult following and several people helped Dave in his quest, which he did eventually complete. (Five even changed their names by deed poll to Dave Gorman – two of them women).
Television show
| The Dave Gorman Collection | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace |
| Starring | Dave Gorman |
| Opening theme | Eliza Carthy |
| Country of origin | UK |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Myfanwy Moore |
| Running time | 30mins |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC Two |
| Original run | 4 March 2001 – 8 April 2001 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | How to Start Your Own Country |
All this came to the attention of the BBC, who gave Gorman a series, co-written and co-produced by Wallace. For copyright reasons, the title was changed to The Dave Gorman Collection. The show was effectively the same as the stage show, and took the form of televised lectures, in which he explained what he had done. The six episodes were directed by Pati Marr. Later, after the TV series was broadcast, a book entitled Are You Dave Gorman? was written by Gorman and Wallace.
Once the TV show existed Gorman stopped touring the show in the UK, instead taking it to several overseas festivals and later running the show for three months off-Broadway - a run which saw him appearing as a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Two Australian soap operas have named fictional characters Dave Gorman as an in-joke and the comedian has been bombarded with so many e-mails about it that he has had to publicly appeal to people to stop sending him details of other Dave Gormans. He was, after all, only trying to meet 54. At the time of writing he has met 108.
The show was released on DVD on 19 February 2007 reverting to the title Are You Dave Gorman?. It is, however, only available to buy from his website and on Recordstore.