Dan Clark is a talented fellow. As the writer and star of cult BBC Three comedy How Not To Live Your Life, he’s fashioned himself quite a following for his depiction of narcissistic bachelor Don and his blustering quest for love.
For the meantime though, Clark has decided to return to his stand-up roots and on Tue 19 Apr, as part of his widely anticipated UK stand-up tour, he’ll be stopping off at Cardiff’s Glee Club to showcase his latest material.
In preparation for that night of rib tickling confessional comedy and songs, the talented comic spoke to Buzz about Justin Bieber, attempting to surf in Wales and his future television ambitions.
You’re coming to Glee Club on the19th April. Is that your first time in Cardiff?
It is indeed. Both as a performer and a human being. I’ve been to Wales once and had quite a bad time because we went to go surfing and just as we came into Wales it started pissing it down. That lasted the entire weekend!
You started in stand-up and now you’re returning to it after television success. Is it strange having to sell yourself again in that capacity?
I have actually noticed in the reaction to me going on tour that there is a slight disparity. Even when I’m walking round my home town, people come up to me all the time and say “Hey, I love your TV show.” But they don’t necessarily know I’m a stand-up so I have to remind people that I do this other thing.
Is this something you’ve been wanting to do for some time then?
Yeah because as much as I love making television which I genuinely do, it’s not as immediately satisfying as going out and just showing off in front of an audience and hearing laughter immediately. TV is more like a job, when you write a script in January, rewrite for 6 months, film it edit it and then in September you’re going, “Hang on, why am I doing this again?”
In stand-up I can write a joke in the afternoon and then go and perform it in the evening and immediately find out whether it’s funny or not.
You write and star in both your television material and your stand-up. Do you enjoy having that full creative control?
If someone offered me a part in something where I was just going to be an actor I would enjoy that for the fact that I could just focus on one element and there’s less pressure but I tend to be a bit of a control freak and I do like doing everything.
How Not To Live Your Life is based on observational humour. How much more or less of the case is that with your stand-up?
How Not To Live Your Life is more about sometimes I’ll witness something and I would never follow through in the way Dom would. For example, I was standing in the street once and a homeless girl came up to me asking if I had any change.
Then I remember her walking off and I thought to myself, “Hold on, actually she’s quite fit… No wait! That’s ridiculous” But then I thought that’s a great story for Don because whereas I would leave it at that, Don would probably follow it through and would probably end up going out with her.
With stand-up it’s a lot more me and my genuine feelings and aptitude towards the things going around me. It’s a lot more truthful.
Don is a lot more narcissistic than any human being. Do people come to your shows expecting Don rather than yourself?
Sometimes. Every now and again I’m talking to someone after the show and I can tell that they’re surprised I’m not as much of a dickhead as they thought I’d be.
There are a lot of pop-culture references in the show. Does any of that permeate into your stand-up?
In the second half of the stand-up show I’m going to be doing a few songs and there are a few pop references in there but there’s not so much of a pastiche where we’ll do a whole Pretty Woman scene or a Top Gun musical.
I write all the music and do all the lyrics. The songs are mostly just for the show but there will be around two songs from How Not To Live Your life. Its hard if the song is so connected to the storyline of the episode because either it’s a bit crowbared in or the audience may not have seen that specific episode.
What are the songs about then?
A lot of the time they’re my skewered versions of love songs. There’s a song about Justin Bieber, a song about the Olympics, one about a man struggling to come to terms with why he has nipples. There’s a song about teenagers and how lucky they are to have easy access to the porn when you used to have to go out to the woods or look under your dad’s bed.
Is there going to be a fourth series of How Not To Live Your Life as the last one was left on quite a cliff hanger?
We are going to the BBC to talk to the new head of BBC Three and have a chat about what we want to do. We’re umming and arring on how to wrap things up and whether it’s best to do a full fourth series or just one or two specials. I’ve got a few other projects in the pipeline and I’ve got to think whether I could do six more episodes. I think I could…
You’ve been doing How Not To Live Your Life since 2006 so presumably part of you wants to move on from it?
One of the things I’m writing is a little more grown up, the humour’s not quite as silly and some of the characters are not quite as edgy. Another TV thing I’m developing is an entertainment show where it’s me being me, like my stand up, but they’re both in their early stages.
How Not To Live Your Life is quite the cult hit. Is that something you’re proud of?
Yeah it’s definitely a “cult” hit, for BBC Three it gets really good ratings and I think it’s one of those shows where people found out about it through other people talking about it or they were up late one night and thought ‘hang on what’s this’.
There’s a sense they’ve discovered it rather than it being a show everyone knows but no one cares about. If it was for BBC1 or BBC2 there would be more scrutiny and notes from the channel saying you can’t do that or cut out the swearing and it’s easy to forget this is a luxury that you have.
If stand-up comedy is the new rock‘n’roll what is the new comedy?
They’ve been saying that for ages now and it’s not because the reason stand-up comedy is massive now is due to shows like Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow. I’ve no problem with mainstream comedy at all but that’s actually quite safe and cosy. It’s more like the new Saturday night game show.