Dom Joly the king of television set-ups and put downs is back bamboozling the British public once more, so FemaleFirst caught up with him to talk about jet packs, driving a tank through McDonalds and Trigger Happy: The Movie. Oh, and sleeping with Dawn French and Victoria Beckham.
What have you been getting up to recently; anything exciting?
Ive just come back from China so Ive just been at home for a few days.
Ooh, what were you doing in China?
I was at the Olympics and then hung around afterwards to do some travelling.Awesome. Tell me a bit about your latest project - The Bluffers Guide To Gadgets
I did a sketch on a market stall in London and the idea was to bamboozle people by selling stuff that didnt really exist just by talking techo-speak.It was a really crappy little stall but on it I had some electric toothbrushes that we supposed to harness the power of rainbows and run off rainbow-power. Also Dom Dom Sat Nav which basically brings up a 3D hologram within your car of where youre going so youre literally in the place youre going to!
The whole thing was completely ludicrous but that was the whole point of them and yet people were still coming up and offering money and asking questions about them. There seemed to be very little that you could do to make people think you werent telling the truth in technological terms.
Are you a big fan of gadgets then?
Yeah Im a total gadget addict like all men I think.
Whats your favourite gadget?
I change every week because I constantly get the newest ones. Ive got the new iPhone at the moment which I absolutely love. I had the old one too which I also loved.
Its the best gadget Ive ever had as it does work on every level. When I went to the Olympics I didnt take my laptop I just made notes on the phone and then emailed it to myself. I can even watch films on it and listen to my pod casts on it, I love it, Im absolutely obsessed with it.
Is it well worth the money then because for you its just another bit of cash spent but for us poverty-ridden journalists its dead expensive!
Do you think Im loaded?
I hope so, but lets not go there If you could invent a gadget to make your life easier, what would it be and why?
I want a jet pack of some form. I saw one at the opening of the Olympics in LA because they had a guy flying around in it and I thought Brilliant; thats the way well all be going but I havent seen any progress on it since.
OMG! I need it; when I get stuck in traffic I realise how much I need a helicopter.
Yeah you wouldnt need a helicopter then, youd just need this jet pack, it would be brilliant.
Ooh, I can see it now! Youve also got a golfing DVD coming out just in time for Christmas are you a massive golfing fan?
No not really; I play quite a lot but Im rubbish which Im a bit embarrassed about but I do a lot of travel writing so Im abroad a lot and theres always a golf course around somewhere. I love playing but Im really embarrassed because Im a bit shit really; its just one of those things that even if you got to 80 you would still need to improve so its an ongoing project for me.
Well thats better than me, I can only do crazy golf!
I love crazy golf! Im trying to get my kids into golf at the moment and they really arent into it but they love crazy golf. Damian Hurst set up a really weird crazy gold course down in Devon and it was all designed by him and totally weird with clown windmills and stuff - it was so cool
So you made a name for yourself as a bit of a trickster as youre always setting people up on camera; have you always been a joker?
No not really. Everyone always assumes I must have been the type of person to get people up out of their beds and stuff but as far as I remember I wasnt.
My mum says I used to make traps in the garden and cover them with leaves so shed fall in them and Id broke someones ankle once so I guess that counts but apart from that f**k knows.
Naughty! So if you werent always mischievous, how did you get into the entertainment industry?
I was a journalist and I worked at ITN as a producer and I was doing okay there and I was really into politics but I was interviewing really boring MPs about politics so I used to try and jazz it up and get people to come down and do stuff in the background so I got fired from there.
But thanks to my political knowledge I got taken onto a show called The Mark Thomas Comedy Product and on the first day on that I drove a tank through a McDonalds Drive Thru and I thought I cant believe Im getting paid to do this!
Wow, I love it, I wish I could do that did you do a degree in journalism then?
No I did a degree in politics. I did eight years in journalism though, I love it, I still do it now as I do a lot of travel writing.
So what is the best place that being a travel writer has taken you to?
I like going to really odd places. I went skiing in Iran last year and I like travelling to countries where you can properly travel without coming to a Starbucks every ten metres. I like to go to place that people think are a big dangerous or dodgy because its amazing and people really appreciate the fact that youre there.
I saw a video a while ago of people snowboarding in full Muslim gear and I was like Wow, where is that!? So I found out it was Iran and then off I went and it was amazing!
Is there anywhere you would like to go that you havent been to yet?
Yeah, North Korea is my next place and Libya is somewhere else I really want to go to.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
This interview without a shadow of a doubt.
Well, obviously, but whats the second best then?
Sitting on a train about a week after Trigger Happy came out and that phone ring went off and no-one knew I was on the train and about three different people went; HELLO! IM ON THE TRAIN! and that was the moment I realised that everyone was watching the show and it was really amazing and weird.
What else have you got planned for the future?
Im off to LA next week because Ive just re-hooked up with the guy I made Trigger Happy with, Sam, and hes been in LA for the past four years being a director so we got back together about four months ago and we chatted and came up with an idea for Trigger Happy: The Movie, so Im off to LA to try and pitch it. So who knows whats going to happen but its going to be fun!
Where do you get the inspiration for your sketches from?
Alchol mainly. You kind of get into it really and it comes to you in a second. If youre sitting in a car and you see a milkman you think; Ooh, milkman, I havent done a milkman yet, what could we do with that? and so everything that happens you start thinking how you could use it.
Everything that happens or you see, you look at in another way and you end up thinking what you could do in different situations, for example if a barman is rude to you. Its weird to train yourself like that and Ive been out of training it the moment as I;ve been doing a lot of travel stuff but now were thinking about the movie Im back on top form and I saw this thing on TV the other night for Army recruitment and I though that would be brilliant for something in the States; some guy lying so brilliantly about how great the army is and showing videos of swimming pools and tennis courts trying to recruit kids into the army!
Every celeb Ive interviewed lately wanted to ask you a question and Ben from Ivyrise wanted to know what brand of mobile phone you use (following your famous sketch) but I guess weve already established that, so instead, the singer from new band A Silent Film, wants to know whether youd rather sleep with Victoria Beckham or Dawn French ?
Jesus! Neither! One would eat me and the other would snap.
Good answer, Love it. Good luck with everything.
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison
Watch Dom Joly fooling the British public below and make sure you're in the know with Comet's Bluffer's Guide to Gadgets.
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