As he prepares to take his hit show on road, comic Dane Baptiste chats to Ruth Seavers about social media and the inspirations behind Gold. Oil. Drugs.
It’s a good thing South East Londoner Dane Baptiste is funny, because he’s useless at anything else, he says. That’s what helped him make the move from comedy being a mere pipe dream, to becoming a reality. His show G.O.D. – Gold, Oil, Drugs is a piece on his thoughts about the world we live in, how we are shaped by things like wealth and the source of it, which sometimes causes contention – oil, he says. “We live in a society in the developed world that’s kind of post-religious and the show is about how we still live in a society of worship – where we worship wealth, consumerism and materialism…And we’re creatures of habit – so that’s where the drugs come it. We’re allowed to indulge in our vices more than we ever could.”
Discourse about social media and society are ubiquitous right now, more than ever is seems, and many comedians are touching on the subject, including Dane: “this is now a sea of social media where we are bombarded with aspirational images…the media plays a large part in determining people’s self-image. With the explosion of social media, it’s a new landscape and people are trying to contextualise themselves in it. It’s like we’re having a new adolescence. It’s very much like high school, I think. A popularity contest – everything’s determined by numbers. These are the kind of criteria we used to define ourselves when we were adolescents before you left school and realised none of this shit actually matters. And we’ve re-created that same kind of weird paradigm.”
With so much information available – how come so many people manage to be misinformed with access to – literally – all the of the information in the world at their fingertips? “It doesn’t surprise me as we are privy to an abundance of information – but not so much knowledge. And there is kind of a difference, in terms of the knowledge and the application of information – being able to use critical thought when you receive information. You can now circumvent any of the mainstream media sources, so if you’re dealing with geo-politics or talking about war for example – we can still get a perspective. There are more than enough sources and narratives online,” he says, “so it’s very strange that you can find out all this information by the click of a button on your phone – but you can’t vote on your phone.” Electronic voting would increase the scope for democracy, he says; “I think there is a concerted effort from people in politics to have some people find politics to be rather obtuse. They don’t want that power in some people’s hands.”
So does today’s younger generation have an issue of political complacency? “I would go as far to say it’s the proceeding generation that have enjoyed a certain level of political complacency and a pretty good economy, so the generation now kind of take their cues from the previous generation – and they have no frame of reference – so if they don’t see people being active, they’re not going to be physically politically active. Today’s generation are a lot more receptive in finding an alternate narrative, though. When it comes to media stories and the like,” he says, “I think they have a lot more power, and their voices are a lot more galvanised. I see a lot more historically oppressed groups being able to galvanise themselves, provide rebuttals to any kind of negative or disparaging remarks about them and I think that’s good.”
Taking G.O.D to Edinburgh last year, Dane tends to isolate himself a little from other people’s shows, preferring their work not to influence his. “I panic way too much,” he says. “And I never read reviews. I don’t want my performance to be based on being validated from a review.”
It’s safe to say Dane’s voice is strong, and backed with a lot of self belief and desire to be authentic, which always resounds with audiences.
Dane Baptiste – G.O.D (Gold. Oil. Drugs), Thu 20 Sep, Glee Club, Cardiff. Tickets: £12. Info: 0871 472 0400 / www.glee.co.uk