Danny Bhoy Isn't Suffering Any Fools - Not Even When That Fool's President

Danny Bhoy’s new show, Age Of Fools, does look at the elephant in the White House. And the nasties in Number 10. And lots of other strange happenings in high places. However, like any good comedian, he’s made sure the laughs come first and lectures are left to other folks. 

“There’s no actual Trump jokes,” Bhoy says. “I’m aware that people are bored and tired, and I mean, people in Britain: some people cannot even hear the word ‘Brexit’. It’s like the word ‘tequila’ for some people – they cannot hear it without being physically sick, so you have to be very careful about how you introduce it. But from the feedback so far there’s nothing that makes people feel like it was preachy or too heavy, so yeah, I think I’ve found the right balance, I hope so.”

Chatting from LA during a little break in the schedule, he explains his idea further.  “I’ll tell you what I enjoy most about doing this show - I introduce the show as a show about politics, and I love at that point, right at the beginning of the show, where I can feel some people almost sigh with exhaustion. What I like is that over the course of the hour they’re not even going to know that they’re in a show about politics, it kind of creeps up and up. And honestly a lot of what [is in the show] is a story that doesn't seem like it’s going to be political and then it comes out.”

Age Of Fools is Bhoy’s tenth(ish) tour to Australia. We both say ‘ish’ because he wasn’t sure either, and that was number he was happy to settle on. In fact, he’s spent so much time here over the last decade or so that he’s been mistaken for being an adopted Aussie more than once. 

"It’s funny because a lot of people think I live in Australia, and it’s a real problem for me because I end up missing out on work in the UK."

“I live in Scotland, I live in Edinburgh, and generally speaking it’s where I’m happiest. [But] it’s funny because a lot of people think I live in Australia, and it’s a real problem for me because I end up missing out on work in the UK. People say, ‘Oh, I would have booked you but I thought you lived in Australia,’ so I don't know where this started, maybe it’s on my Wikipedia or something, or maybe it’s because for quite a long time I would spend a good part of the year in Australia, but I was working, I was on tour.” 

Anyone watching summer repeats of Australian quiz shows (hello Spicks And Specks, again!) could be forgiven for thinking Bhoy lives here too – and it’s an interesting little ‘no time, no place’ aspect of comedy that he’s intrigued by. 

“Well it’s funny, it’s a weird world, all that. There was a clip of mine that over Christmas went viral in Scotland, and it was a very Scottish bit of material, but it was six years old, and I couldn’t even remember the bit of material myself! But it’s funny how that can happen – then I’ll go to the supermarket and someone will say, ‘I’ve just seen your routine!’”

While some artists might feel the need to want to move away from such loops, Bhoy takes it in his stride. “Actually I’m [luckily] not typecast in that way, I’m known for different things in different places. If I go to Australia people ask for certain routines, and in Scotland people ask for a different routine, and in Canada it’ll be a certain part about America, so it just depends where you are. I have to remember what I’ve done and where I’ve done it.”

The new show originally had a long and deliberately incomprehensibly stupid title, but Bhoy changed it to Age Of Fools to better sum up the mood and get on with it. “These are very strange times to be living in, between what you want and what you get,” he says. “I’ve been doing this show for a year and I promise you, no one has come out – it doesn’t feel like a political show at the time, it just feels like a topical show. You won’t get any jokes about Donald Trump’s hair, let’s put it like that.”