Googlewhack Adventure

Dave Gorman is possibly the most talented raconteur around, his manic delivery style and the clever manner in which he gets the audience to become part of his quest is simply brilliant, he doesn't tell jokes, he doesn't churn out one liners, he merely describes his fantastic, but entirely true journey, and the result is two hours of the most hilarious entertainment. I have never laughed so loud or so long at any other performance, an absolute delight from start to finish. My wife sat in front of the TV determined not to enjoy what she was sure was going to be adolescent, masculine humour and within minutes was in paroxysms of delight and she is a tough audience. If you rent or buy only one DVD this year, make it this one.

Dave Gorman's adventure is both hugely surrealistic, and hugely real.

Based on the true tale of what happens when random events are carried to a logical end, Googlewhack is one of the most surprising one-man shows to be seen in quite a while.

As much theater as comedy it does more than just ask us to laugh or think - it causes us to wonder at the sheer magnitude and determination of the quest that Dave undertook.

Never losing his thread thanks to his trusty Mac and Keynote presentation - there is a definite mania to the whole thing.

After the first hour it began to be repetitive, then suddenly caught fire again and the last 30 minutes are superb.

Can honestly say that this is one of the best one man shows out there - and one to be enjoyed - Dave does not come across as a Las Vegas type comedian - nor Lenny Bruce - he is quintessentially unique - a downtrodden Don Quixote off questing the world - it is a wonderful and at times tiring watch - but really lingers after...

Recommended

I had no idea what to expect going into this and I was blown away. Gordon is a born performer and did an excellent job, I have been given instructions not to say anything about the nature of the film so i will just prattle on about nonsensical things for 10 lines. It was really good though and you should definitely watch it. Here is a little story, once upon a time there was a pig and a walrus, the pig and the walrus were the best of friends, but one day the pig went to the walrus's house and he wasn't there, so the pig stole his TV and ate his food. Then the walrus came back and ate the pig. Well thats just about 10 lines, again go and rent this, go into it blind thats the best way to do it.

After watching the majority of his first 'Im Dave Gorman' Experiment i was intrigued to find out what Googlewhacking was all about. And the end result i was presented with was sheer genius working on stage. Although it is hard to comment on the content without giving away too much, Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure takes you on a journey like no other. It all started with an email from a fan referring to his website as having a Googlewhack on it. What is a Googlewhack i hear you cry? A Googlewhack happens when you type any two words (from a dictionary or Google's own online dictionary)press search, and only get ONE result returned. Harder than you'd Expect. When Dave attempts this he finds himself taking an unexpected trip spanning a fair few miles around the world. A fantastic bit of viewing even for those unfamiliar with his work. You'll laugh, you'll cry you'll even cringe at his independent struggle to pursue this random endeavor. Random but Revolutionary. This truly is tale of epic proportions

Those who know Dave Gorman will know that he is the man who decided to set out to meet other people called Dave Gorman. A little weird but to top that he decided to set himself a series of metrics and goals (miles travelled per Gorman for example) to make it more of a challenge. The outcome of that was a particularly funny stand up show where he gave a PowerPoint presentation about his journey, showing graphs and the like to illustrate it in an engaging and entertaining way.

On this occasion he sets out to write a novel when he gets distracted by an email alerting him to the fact that he is a Googlewhack – specifically his website is the only result when two words are searched for on Google. Those words were Francophile Namesake and they start Gorman on a path to try and find people who have websites which are Googlewhacks, who in turn find him two more websites, who he will then contact and so on until he has a chain of 10, all of whom he has personally met. All against the ticking clock of a deadline of his 32nd birthday. Needless to say the novel doesn't get his full attention.

I didn't bother with this all those years ago because it did feel like a bit of a stunt (an issue he puts me in my place about during this show) rather than something that had grown organically. This feeling is very quickly left behind in this show because Gorman tells a story that really starts in the spark of wonderful coincidence and obsession – a coincidence that is so out of the blue that it would be hard to believe if I simply stated it, so I won't. Anyway the journey that it sparks is really engagingly told because Gorman puts a lot of himself into it – the joy of moving forward, the despair of dead ends and the overall of obsession of making this mostly pointless thing happen. The show spends a lot of time on the people he meets early on (where the novelty of the telling exists) and then wisely speeds up to avoid it being too samey. The conclusion is really strong as well.

It isn't always hilarious and at times it doesn't quite work; personally I didn't find Gorman as effective when he was yelling in rage at his audience because it seemed a little too forced and overly dramatic for the sake of the show, but these bits still do work thanks to the rest of it. This isn't so much a stand-up show as it is a story told with humor and energy and although sometimes it doesn't quite work, it is mostly engaging, funny and entertaining.