Performer: Damian Clark
Photograph by: Richard Wood
Show: Extra Show
Venue: Gilded Balloon
Promoter: Brett Vincent for Get Comedy
Online: Box Office Facebook Website

Tell me about your Edinburgh show.

It’s as many gags as I can fit into an hour. Also about how I was locked in jail for buying a car I thought was legit. And being inside when my first child was due. Hilarious right?! And how I got out. Shawshank but with dick jokes – Shawwank!

Tell me about your first gig.

I wore a suit and tie because I thought that’s what you did. Borrowed my Dad’s and it was huge on me. And it was 40 degrees that day! Did 5 minutes, got maybe 3 decent laughs (which is a bad strike rate) but loved it and was hooked immediately. Still remember the wafts of cigarette smoke streaming through the spotlight. It felt as if the spotlight was a solid physical thing and being in it was scary but was everything.

Do you have any rituals before going on stage?

Get druuuuuunk. And/or just think about what you’re gunna say. Then sing Hakuna Matata in its entirety 3 times.

Tell me about your best and worst review.

Same show! One reviewer loved it and the other hated me! So just proves how diverse reviewers opinions can be. Same as everyone. One said, “hilarious from start to finish” and the other said “rather gouge my eyes out with hot spoons than to watch that again”. As it’s Edinburgh I’m sure there are a good few people heating up spoons with lighters down alleyways, it’s the perfect place for them, cause I’m not going anywhere.

During this Edinburgh run, do you plan to read reviews of your show?

Nope. But will read them all in September and have a great laugh.

How do you feel about reviewers generally?

I like them. The more the merrier. You can ignore reviews you don’t like and the ones you do like you’ll have for a lifetime.

In April 2018, YouTube comedian, Markus Meechan (aka Count Dankula) was fined £800 for training his girlfriend’s pug dog to do a Nazi salute with its paw, in response to the phrase ‘Gas the Jews’. Do you believe Meechan committed a criminal offence, and why?  

It was meant to be a private joke, I believe, so in which case shouldn’t be charged. But as lots of people saw it and how distasteful it was. He should been given community service to trim the weeds at Auschwitz, see how Markus likes that.

Are there any subjects that are not suitable for comedy?

Na. Everything is fair game; know what you’re talking about, be passionate and above all, be FUNNY.

Have you ever gone too far?

Aaaalllllll the tiiiiiiiiime. Like once I used a fake name ‘Markus Meechan’ and taught my girlfriend’s dog all sorts of wrong tricks.

Looking back over your time as a comedian, tell me about the best gig of your career.

Tonight’s gig in the Gilded Balloon at 10pm – BAM!!!!…or if you can’t make tonight, TOMORROW’S gig in the Gilded Balloon at 10pm!!…and if you can’t make that one, THE NEXT NIGHT’S gig at the Gild….. (Enough! – ed.)