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Not over 'til it's over. And even then, it's probably not over - December 23, 2007

Hi Everyone,

I trust you are all enjoying your festive season. For those of you reading this in Australia/New Zealand, you ought to know that last night the temperature in Edinburgh dropped to -8. If you’re not sure what that feels like, put your hand in the freezer for 5 minutes, then rub that hand all over your body (don’t do it to someone else without their expressed permission).

“Well Danny,” you’re probably thinking. “It’s just as well you are heading to Australia in a few days.” But, you’d be wrong. I had planned to be in Australia for New Year, but a few things have happened, or rather haven’t happened since the last blog. The writers strike is still going on in America, which has put everything on hold for me over there. As a result, it now looks like I won’t be needed in those parts until March.

“Well, that’s nice Danny. That means you can have a proper break.” You’d be wrong again. Being the helpless comedy junkie I am, I have decided to use this time to do the dates in Western Australia I wasn’t able to fit in on this year’s tour. So, I’m now coming back to Australia in February, not January, to do the shows I said I wasn’t going to do until next year, because I’m not sure if I’m going to be free to do them next year. Keep up! Will you?

At the moment, it’s only 17 dates, including 2 in Perth, but there may be a few more added, we’ll just have to wait and see. It’s obviously very short notice for these shows, so it might turn out to be a complete disaster numbers-wise, but what the heck! We’ll just have fun! Anyway, the dates have just been put on sale, so if you live in WA, and you’d like to come along to a show, I’d be delighted to see you there. Details of the new dates are now up on my website and my myspace page.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who came along to one of my shows this year wherever in the world it was. I have had some of the best gigs of my life, and a good few adventures off stage. I hope we get to do it all again sometime….

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

Danny Bhoy.

The build-up begins... - December 3, 2007

Hello everyone,

And a very warm welcome to my new website. I can’t take all or indeed any of the credit for it. The opening page is what they call a ‘flash page’ which allows the viewer to click on things and watch things happen. I’m sure you’ll work it all out long before I do. I hope you like it, and welcome any suggestions, ideas you would like to see on it. I personally have requested that the beautiful beach scenery slowly changes in line with the gradual destruction of the environment. I thought it might be nice to highlight the cause by showing over time a darkening of the skies and muddying of the waters due to pollution, the gradual eclipsing of the beach due to the polar ice caps melting and the odd beached whale which you click on and oil spurts out of its gills. So, for the time being the image will remain purposefully upbeat, and pretty, but it’s up to all of us to keep it that way….

In other news, you will shortly be able to download one of the Montreal ‘Just For Laughs’ shows onto your Ipod, and in the new year I’m hoping to start broadcasting monthly podcasts. If there is anything else with the word ‘pod’ in it, that I can think of doing, I will. Maybe, I could set up my Ipod on a tripod, and do a podcast from a pod. But then there’s always the risk that people start referring to me as a podophile, and I don’t really want that to happen.

As far as stand up is concerned, I am definitely going to be doing a tour of the UK in the autumn of 2008. If/when I’m not needed in the States, then I will be working up the new show at pubs/clubs either here or in Australia from the start of next year. I’ll keep you all up-to-date with any ‘secret’ or non-secret gigs that might be happening in the spring, it’s always good to get an early indication of how far behind I am. There are currently no shows planned for Australia or New Zealand next year. It will be the first time in 5 years I have not toured down there, but I think we need to take a break (it’s not you, it’s me).

The festive season is upon us and for the first time ever I was in Edinburgh to see the traditional turning on of the Christmas tree lights in Princes Street Gardens last week. One of the guest speakers was a middle-aged woman from a small town in Norway called Hordaland, which for the past 30 years has provided Edinburgh with it’s magnificent tree on the Mound. I would like to thank her for her little faux pas at a time when the crowd was getting very cold and restless. She beamed from ear to ear as she announced that every year she enjoyed “pissing through Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens at Christmas time.” Of course, I’m assuming it was a faux pas, perhaps we just didn’t pay for the tree!

After the lights came on there was the regulation fireworks. I challenge any other city in the world to prove they have annually more unnecessary fireworks displays than Edinburgh. “It’s New Year! Let’s have fireworks!” “It’s the end of the Festival! Let’s have fireworks!” “It’s Christmas! Let’s have fireworks!” “It’s Friday! Let’s have fireworks!” “I lost my keys up at the castle! Let’s have fireworks!” Having said that, they truly are spectacular, a castle lit up by fireworks, might be my favourite thing in the World. I then went to the German Christmas Market which is just outside the Art Gallery on Princes Street, where I was enchanted by rows of small wooden huts selling everything from German pastries to…well, German pastries. £3.50 for a donut on a stick, looks like the grinning Norwegian women wasn’t the only one taking the piss.

Well, that’s really it for the moment. I will write another blog shortly. Please leave a message on my myspace page (www.myspace.com/dbhoy), if there’s anything you want to see/don’t want to see on the site?

I will speak to you all again very soon,

Danny

They're on a blue Saab keyring

Thank you good people of Nordaland