Lady Rathbone

Seeing Dayne Rathbone on stage brings words to mind, not all of them kind. Rathbone comes across as being on the worrying end of the autism spectrum. An idiot savant. He's inarticulate, awkward, gets stuck in big silences, or break down completely, unable even to speak. But guess what – this self-proclaimed computer geek with a mild learning disability is a comic sensation. Last year saw him crowned winner of Raw Comedy. “Winning Raw Comedy was the best and definitely the most exciting moment of my life ever!” he enthuses. “I was like 'What the hell is happening right now?' and I heard like a ringing sound like a fire alarm and I was like 'what the hell!?'” He went on to place second in the the UK's biggest comedy contest, So You Think You're Funny, at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Rathbone's show sees him just being his extremely odd self. “Everything is me and my stage character,” he says. “When I am on stage I feel all [these] electric shocks inside me and I just want to perform to everyone and show everyone who I am.” His ingenuousness is unique. “I think I am naturally a gifted performer who has an extreme love for performing and everything to do with performing,” he avers. “I want to do everything to express myself and who I am.” Some preparation is involved: “I always write down everything or take photos of everything that is an idea so I can't waste it.”

You'll love Rathbone or hate him, a cliché but true.  “Not everybody can make a performance that everybody thinks is so great,” he continues. “If someone doesn't like it, they are entitled to their own opinions.”

Why does he think he's so funny? “ Because people are like, 'I have a story like that' or 'My sister did something like that', or it makes them think of funny things that happened to them,” he answers. “If you can tell people the truth, it's usually really funny.” He can't fail: the 'wronger' his act goes, the funnier it is. “Whether or not you think you are going to fail, or you think you can't win, you are right,” he says. “Which is what Henry Ford said, which is why I always am positive about everything, and everyone says that I always am in a good mood!”

Rathbone admits stand-up takes courage. “At first I had to do about six toilets on the day because my stomach didn't agree with me. After that it went away.” He aspires to become “the Lady Gaga of comedy”. “She is so much of an inspirational to me. When she sings I know all the words and it really has a big effect on me; I want to give people that, too.” Rathbone pictures himself achieving supernova status. “I imagine I would go down in the States in my own reality TV show, about me and my best friend Ivan, which would go down hilarious and just extremely fun cause that's where all the money is.”

A bit of traditional positive thinking doesn't hurt. “In the Bible it says that if you think a lot about what you really, really want and you imagine it happening; the rule of attractiveness makes it happen, which I believe.”