I watched the DVD of this story before I read the book, and at first I was a bit worried because it seemed to be an almost direct transcript of the live stand-up show. However, if you’ve seen the show, this book is great for filling in the gaps, although the comedy doesn’t always come through quite as well as on the DVD.
The story is too complicated to summarise: let’s just say that instead of Dave Gorman growing up and writing a novel, he’s travelling the world meeting strangers. Anyone who read ‘Are You Dave Gorman?’ may think this is just a rehash of that caper, but the humour in this is far different despite the similarity of content. It has some surprisingly dark moments and is written with a lot of emotion, which seems unusual for a comedy book. I genuinely felt worried for him; this wasn’t an adventure he was doing with the idea of making money or furthering his career, in fact it’s the total opposite. Reading it feels akin to watching a car crash, but strangely enough it still manages to be funny and fascinating. He meets some bizarre people on his journey and a lot of the interest lies in his reactions towards them.
It’s a hard book to review (can you tell?) but definitely a good one to read. Still, text on paper could never be as funny as the live show. So get both!!*
*No commission was earned on this review. Honest.
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