I've been a fan of Dave Gorman's for a very long time now, I've read all his books, seen all his live shows (on DVD, sadly never in person), so when I heard that Dave had made a programme for Dave (the channel) I was very excited.
Last week I was lucky enough to watch the first episode of Dave Gorman Modern Life Is Goodish and even luckier a few days later when I attended the 2013-14 UKTV showcase and was treated to a live performance by Dave Gorman in the style of his new show. So what exactly is his new show all about?
Well, Dave Gorman thought modern life was good, and when he said good what he actually meant was good... ish. Dave feels manipulated by the media, harassed by technology and constantly being sold stuff he doesn't need.
In Modern Life Is Goodish, Dave uses his unique blend of stand-up, visual storytelling and real-world experimentation - the result being a really funny, entertaining and somewhat enlightening television programme.
In the first episode, Dave tears apart the websites where people ask questions and wait for a response. His main worry is that some of these people must not have heard of Google, otherwise they wouldn't be using these sites.
He's shocked by the questions people ask and some of the answers given. I won't ruin it for you, but one question Dave comes across is - How many days does March have in a Leap Year?
Dave also tackles Terms & Conditions - you know, that box you tick almost every single day for one reason or another without ever actually having read them.
In the first episode he tells us about the time he went to use one of London's Boris bikes, and was confronted by a screen showing Page 1 of 39 full of Terms & Conditions yet below a button to click accept.
Instead of clicking the accept button as most of us would, Dave reads every single page. In doing so, he found a mistake. Again, I'll leave you to watch the show to see what the mistake was.
Then there's the 'Found Poem' - which is built entirely from the 'Bottom half of the internet', which means the comments people leave at the bottom of news stories. Dave Gorman then turns the lights down and dramatically reads out a series of those comments to some dramatic music - thus turning them into a poem.
All in all, Modern Life Is Goodish is a very smart and entertaining programme - exactly the type you'd expect from Dave Gorman. I for one can't wait for the rest of the series to see what other modern life-isms Dave will tear apart.
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