Dave Gorman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dave Gorman
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Gorman in 2008
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| Born |
David James Gorman
2 March 1971 Stafford, England
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| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1993–present |
| Spouse(s) |
Beth Gorman
(m. 2010) |
| Children | 1 |
David James Gorman (born 2 March 1971) is a funny English comedian, presenter, and writer. He is known for his unique shows that mix stand-up comedy with real-life adventures and experiments. Dave often uses projectors and charts in his shows to share his discoveries.
He started his career writing for popular TV shows like The Mrs Merton Show and The Fast Show. Later, he became famous for his own stage shows. One of his most well-known shows was Are You Dave Gorman?, which started at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2000. This show was even made into a TV series!
Dave Gorman has created many other TV shows based on his funny ideas. These include Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure, Genius, and Dave Gorman: Modern Life Is Goodish. You might also have seen him as a guest on shows like Have I Got News for You, Taskmaster, and QI.
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Early Life and Education
David James Gorman was born in Stafford, England, on 2 March 1971. He has a twin brother named Nicholas.
Dave went to Walton High School in Stafford. After school, he studied mathematics at the University of Manchester. However, he decided to leave university after two years to follow his passion for comedy.
Dave Gorman's Comedy Adventures
Starting Out in Comedy
Before becoming a famous performer, Dave Gorman was a talented writer. He helped write three series of The Mrs Merton Show. He also wrote for other TV shows in the UK, including The Fast Show. In 2003, a newspaper called The Observer named him one of the 50 funniest people in British comedy.
Dave also created his first one-man show called Reasons to be Cheerful. This show was based on a pop song and explored whether things in the song were truly reasons to be cheerful. He used old slides to show each "reason." This show was first performed in 1998.
His next show, Dave Gorman's Better World, came out in 1999. For this show, he wrote anonymous letters to newspapers. He asked people to suggest ways one person could make the world better. Then, he tried to do their suggestions to see if they worked!
Are You Dave Gorman?
Dave Gorman became very famous after a funny bet with his flatmate, Danny Wallace. Dave claimed he shared his name with the assistant manager of a football team. He thought there must be "loads" of other Dave Gormans around. Danny disagreed.
So, they traveled to Methil to meet the football assistant manager, whose name was indeed Dave Gorman! The bet grew bigger. Danny challenged Dave to meet a Dave Gorman for every card in a deck of cards. This included the jokers!
Dave's journey to find 54 Dave Gormans was full of funny moments. Five people even changed their names by deed poll to Dave Gorman (two of them were women!). He even went to New York, but the person he met wasn't a "Dave Gorman," but a "B. David Gorman," so he didn't count. This amazing story became a book and a TV show called The Dave Gorman Collection.
The Astrology Experiment
In 2002, Dave Gorman had a TV series called Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment. This show was a funny "scientific experiment." It wanted to see if astrology (horoscopes) really worked.
For 40 days, Dave tried to follow all the instructions in his horoscopes. Meanwhile, his twin brother, Nick, was his "control." Nick ignored his horoscopes. Both brothers wrote down what happened each day. They looked at how they did in love, health, and money.
Dave got into many funny situations trying to follow his horoscopes. For example, he once had to stand on one leg in Covent Garden. He had a tangerine in one hand and cereal in the other! He even had to sing the national anthem backwards.
At the end, Dave's happiness, love, and money had gone down. But on the last day, he followed a horoscope that told him to bet on a golfer. He borrowed money from his mom and placed the bet. Amazingly, he won! This made his money go up a lot. So, he "proved" that astrology worked for him!
The Googlewhack Adventure
In 2003, Dave Gorman toured with a show called Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure. He also wrote a book about it. This was another true story.
Dave became obsessed with Googlewhacks. A Googlewhack is when you type two words into Google and get only one search result. He traveled around the world to find the people who had created these unique Googlewhacks. One of them was even a Dave Gorman he had met before!
He spent all the money his publisher gave him for a novel on this quest. He didn't write the novel! So, he created the Googlewhack Adventure show to earn the money back. This show was very popular. It won an award at the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. His book also became a number one best-seller.
Traveling Across America
In 2006, Dave went on a road trip across the United States. He wanted to see if he could travel from the west coast to the east coast without using any big chain businesses. This meant no big hotel chains or corporate gas stations. He only used small, independently owned places.
This trip was called America Unchained. He ate, slept, and filled his car at family-owned restaurants, hotels, and gas stations. A book and a film were made about this adventure. The film won an award for Best Documentary Feature.
Genius Ideas
Dave Gorman hosted a show called Genius on BBC Radio 4. In this show, people sent in their ideas to make the world a better place. Dave and a guest would then decide if the idea was truly "genius." This show was so popular that it was later made into a TV series for BBC2.
Modern Life Is Goodish
In 2013, Dave Gorman started a new TV show on the Dave channel called Modern Life Is Goodish. In this show, Dave looks at the funny and strange things about modern life. He uses his projector to show funny pictures, videos, and charts.
The show was very popular and ran for five series. Many people watched it, with up to 1.5 million viewers! Dave announced that a sixth series will be coming out in 2025.
Latest Stage Shows
Dave Gorman continues to perform live stage shows. In 2017, he announced a new show called With Great PowerPoint Comes Great ResponsibilityPoint. This show was very popular and he toured it for a long time. He even asked people to talk about his "giraffe joke" from the show, saying it was the best in the world!
In 2019, Dave hosted a new TV series called Terms and Conditions Apply. This show was similar to Modern Life Is Goodish. But this time, Dave had guest stars on each episode. They played games based on the funny topics he presented.
In 2022, Dave announced another live show tour called PowerPoint to the People. He toured this show throughout 2022 and 2023.
Other TV Appearances
Dave Gorman has appeared on many other TV shows. He was a team captain on Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive. He also appeared as a reporter on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in the United States.
You might have seen him on popular quiz shows like Have I Got News for You and QI. He even won two episodes of QI! He also appeared on Taskmaster, where he had to complete funny and tricky challenges.
Personal Life
Dave Gorman married his wife, Beth, on 8 October 2010. They live in Bournemouth, England, and have one son.
Dave is a pescatarian, which means he eats fish but not other meat. He also enjoys creating cryptic crosswords for newspapers.
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