Saying Power(point): Dave Gorman talks ahead of Dudley show

The new run reaches Dudley Town Hall on Thursday, and sees Dave continue to combine his unique and critically acclaimed style of stand-up and visual story-telling.

As the title suggests, Dave is bringing his laptop and projector screen with him so expect the master of Powerpoint comedy to have more detailed analysis of those parts of life you’ve never stopped to think about before.

This was Gorman’s first new live tour show in four years and followed on from Dave Gorman Gets Straight To The Point* (*The Power Point).

Gorman is delighted to still be on the road – but says he won’t keep the tour going indefinitely.

“It keeps selling tickets and other venues want it,” he says. “But this is the final leg of the tour. This will be it. I’m not doing a Sinatra retiring – then keep coming back.”

Though Gorman has headlined the show dozens of times, there are subtle differences each night that help to keep it fresh for him.

“With a lot of stand up it has the appearance of being more malleable than it often is,” the Stafford-born comic continues. “I used to do stand-up like that and it has the appearance of being able to go anywhere else.

“Mine doesn’t even appear to be different. People know that when I press the button the next slide appears. There are over 700 slides in the presentation. It’s not making that pretence. The thing that is fun for me in doing it is watching an audience response. What I never do is write it down. I don’t write a script.

“My writing is building the Powerpoint. But I’ve never learned it word for word. So it comes out slightly differently night after night. What tends to happen is that every time you find the perfect thing that gets the best reaction, that becomes the way you say it the next night and the next night.

“You’re constantly refining it. There are bits of this show – I don’t know why it’s more fun than previous shows, but it is.

“The analogy I’ve been using is when you’re a kid, you think you’ve got your mom the best xmas present and knocked it out the park. You’re sitting down and they’re passing the presents and you think, come on, open my present mom and you’ve nailed it. That’s what this show is like. I’ve wrapped up 100 presents for the audience. I just pick at the first bit of Sellotape and let you unwrap them.”

Unlike most comedians, Gorman doesn’t keep notebooks full of ideas that later get turned into shows. He doesn’t keep voice notes on his iPhone or collect vignettes that later find their way onto the stage.

“I’m not very good at writing notes,” he adds. “I don’t keep hold of ideas. I don’t have a notebook for the next tour. What I do is make myself come up with things.

“I’m not doing it now because I’m on tour. I used to run a monthly club and I would book four acts and I would host it. I would do my stuff with Powerpoint and I’d put four regular stand-ups on.

“By doing that once a month, I forced myself to work out what I’d done. So I had to unpack the last month of your life, my feelings, the events and so on. And then, that would give me some material.” I’d put the best bits in a box. When it comes to writing it, it’s amazing to me how often one little thing leads to bigger, bigger, bits of material when I start putting it into Powerpoint.”

He’s happy with the level of fame he has – so that he’s not a household name but is well-liked and well-supported by knowledgeable fans.

“I am not being self-effacing, I just think I’m a very, very lucky person because there’s a bunch of people who like what I do. There’s also millions of people who haven’t a clue who I am. My life is not impeded by the level of fame I have because it’s a very low level of fame. I remember years ago, I had a book out, I bumped into another comic, I won’t say who, who also had a book out. They were a much bigger name but their book wasn’t doing as well as mine. The thing with his book was that people thought it was a souvenir for someone who liked the TV show. Mine wasn’t a souvenir. People who’d never heard of me were picking me up in the airport. His was merchandise rather than a book. That’s what I’ve always hoped to do. I always present my work and I hope people like it, people come on board different ways.”