Brit Comedy for Byron
Dan Willis brings Best of British back to the Byron Comedy Festival. It was a sellout last year, with the audience confirming it as one of the favourite shows of the program. Dan is back – this time with Rory Lowe and John Flynn, and spoke with The Echo…
Coming back to working again…
Coming back to working again I had no idea people actually had proper jobs, that had been paying them wages, what kind of strange world do we live in, that this happens? I thought everyone just bounced from venue to venue, telling stupid stories… but apparently such things as ‘teachers’ and ‘accountants’ exist, this shouldn’t have really been a surprise to me, my wife is a teacher. I am, of course, an idiot…
Adelaide Fringe was…
Adelaide Fringe was great, it was the first time I’ve achieved a month in SA without seeing a V8, or an excessive number of fans of V8s. These are apparently ‘Supercars’, which seems strange to me, as I consider comfort and mileage as crucial to making a car ‘super’, and I’ve heard these things do about 2km to the gallon and are so uncomfortable that you have to wear a helmet to drive them.
Melbourne Comedy Festival is…
Melbourne Comedy Festival is one of my favourite Comedy Festival’s based in Melbourne, it does exactly what it says on the tin. I also like the Melbourne Beer festival, and most festivals that involve beer and comedy.
Being one of the few ‘internationals’ at this year’s festival circuit I have found…
That I’m a bit exotic; a white middle-aged English speaking male comedian really stands out from the crowd!
When I get in front of an audience I think…
What if they’re the nervous ones, and they’re imagining me naked? Which worries me, I’ve seen me naked…
I started in IT but what people don’t know…
If I’d stayed in IT, I would now be financially secure, and the concept of stability scares the hell out of me. If you’re not living life on the edge, you’re taking up too much space!
The biggest misnomer around comedy is…
You need to be wacky, obscure, completely different. If you’re simply being funny, there’s still plenty of room for you in comedy. Just do what you, yourself, find funny and make it as funny as possible, don’t worry about getting kudos from the rabble.
What I love most about live performance is…
Instant gratification, pain, agony or ecstasy – with live performance you don’t have to worry about waiting for feedback, you know how well you’ve done within moments.
The serious side of the funny business is…
Admin exists. And this distresses me. If only a magical fairy diary wizard would simply organise my life for me… No matter how funny you are, if you don’t keep ahead on the admin, you’re gonna end up sleeping in your car.
As a British boy living on the Gold Coast I often worry…
That I will never experience a decent pub crawl again. There are two decent pubs near me and they’re five miles apart. That’s not a crawl, it’s a trek. From my mum’s window in Newcastle Upon Tyne I can see seven decent pubs!
Australians love Brit comedy because…
There’s a lot of it. And we invented being grumpy. Grumpy is what Brits do best. And Grumpy is something Aussies don’t see enough of – it’s hard to be grumpy in paradise!
This year’s line up features…
Three top headline acts from the other side of the world! Which is not an easy thing to achieve, given that the borders are closed and British comedians tend to remain caged in the UK at the minute…
People should come to the Best of Brits because …
It’s back-to-back laughs, no messing, no nonsense laughs. And that’s what we’ve been missing this year.
Grab a ticket, come along, leave the talking to us for 90 minutes and have a great time.
Friday 14 May at 5.30pm. Tickets $45 on byroncomedyfest.com
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
