Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure was the name of a tour Dave
Gorman embarked upon in order to pay back the publishing house who
had lent him a small fortune for a novel he hadn't managed to write.
It has since become a video of the tour and a book. I'm reviewing
the video, because unlike the tour you can still see it, and I can
only imagine that the book doesn't fully capture Dave Gorman's
enthusiasm and storytelling ability, which is part of what makes the
show so funny.
It's not really standup comedy in that he doesn't tell lots of jokes
or make observations about society. Instead, he tells the story of
how he ended up owing the publishing house all that money. It starts
with him setting out to write a novel, and getting an advance for
it.
"My computer is attached to the Internet. The Internet contains
everything in the whole wide world ever. I don't know about you,
but I sometimes find everything in the whole wide world ever to be
a bit distracting."
- Dave Gorman explaining why he had difficulty writing a novel.
The trouble begins when he gets sidetracked into trying to win a bet
made by a friend of his (whose name, for reasons I won't go into,
is also Dave Gorman). Naturally, he doesn't want to get drawn into
a bet that would have him flying all over the world and ruining his
chance of writing a novel, but then one day he gets drunk and wakes
up at an airport...
"I bet you can't meet ten Googlewhacks in a row before your 32nd
birthday if everyone you meet is only allowed to find you two more
Googlewhacks."
- The rules David Gorman gave Dave Gorman.
Part of what makes the video so funny is the sheer enthusiasm Dave
Gorman has for telling his story, complete with a photo slideshow.
He dramatically reenacts the parts of various people he met, acting
out the encounters, parties and hangovers.
"Imagine trying to telephone your grandmother, and over the telephone
explain to your grandmother how to set the video recorder if you
knew that she didn't have a video recorder, but she did have a
cake."
- Dave Gorman explaining why Dr. Duane T. Gish couldn't find him
any Googlewhacks.
Dave Gorman's adventure is filled with more coincidences than The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. As if they didn't make the story
unbelievable enough, the ending is as dramatic as any that could be
dreamed up by a writer, with the looming deadline of his birthday
inching closer as Dave Gorman gets tantalisingly close to reaching
his goal. The story is entirely true, however, which was an unfortunate
fact considering that the narrator owed a very large company a novel.
"In the first eight weeks of 2003, my average speed was over fifty
miles an hour."
Although it's not technically standup comedy, Dave Gorman's Googlewhack
Adventure is a funny, gripping, true story that is dramatically
reenacted and has a lot of coincidences and fun moments. It will
more than likely have you laughing out loud, and it's worth watching
just to find out how extraordinary the bizarre tale can get.