Following his five-star Olivier Award-nominated one-man show, My Family: Not The Sitcom, David Baddiel will return to Australia to embark on a tour of his brand new show, Trolls: Not The Dolls, from 10th to 18th May.
Trolls – the terrible people who spend all day insulting and abusing strangers for no other reason than to fill the huge gaps in their souls. There is a common wisdom about how to deal with trolls: don’t, for goodness sake, encourage these people by replying to them.
It’s a good law. And it’s one that David has consistently broken. Because David has always seen trolls as hecklers, and if a comedian gets heckled, it is their duty not to ignore the heckler, but to wittily put them down. Over the years, David has spent a lot of time doing this, which has led him to think that there might be a show in it: a show that would say something about how we live now.
David has stories to tell, of the dark, terrible and hysterically absurd cyber-paths that interacting with trolls has led him down. Come with him on this comedy journey into our culture’s most dank virtual underground. You will come back safe, more able to deflect your own trolls, and only a little bit soiled.
David said, “I toured Australia in 2018 with tales of my family. It was a joyous experience. So I’m coming back this year to tell more stories, this time of my online life. It’s all about my battles with trolls, but also about comedy and truth and Trump and Michael Jackson and Brexit and antisemitism and growing old and sex. Because these are all things I’ve talked about online and got mad, hilarious reactions to. It’s a show that takes you into the dark heart of the way we live now and then back out into the light.”
This show is the third in a series of shows from David following the critically acclaimed My Family: Not The Sitcom (2016) and Fame: Not the Musical (2013), which saw him return to live comedy after 15 years.
My Family: Not the Sitcom was described by The Guardian as “compelling to watch both for its unvarnished truth and complicated affection”. The show completed two seasons in London’s West End, was nominated for an Olivier Award and toured internationally.
An accomplished author and screenwriter, David has written the children’s novels, The Parent Agency which won the UK’s Lollie Award for ‘best laugh out loud book for 9-13 year olds’, The Person Controller, AniMalcolm, Birthday Boy and Head Kid; and four critically acclaimed adult novels, The Death of Eli Gold, Time for Bed, Whatever Love Means and The Secret Purposes.
The UK TV star of The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Fantasy Football and Baddiel And Skinner Unplanned, David also wrote the hit comedy film The Infidel which starred Omid Djalili, Richard Schiff, Matt Lucas and Miranda Hart and received a glut of four star reviews. The film has since been adapted into a musical, written and directed by Baddiel with music by Erran Baron Cohen, and ran at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in late 2014.
BOOKINGS: davidbaddiel.com
“Invigoratingly funny. Baddiel continues his extraordinary run of form as a live comedian as he reprises and reframes his best and worst Twitter encounters. Huge fun it is too.” ★★★★ Dominic Maxwell, The Times
“The comedian leads us from weird to wonderful to ‘the absolute worst of humanity’ in his new show about social media…hilarious” ★★★★ Brian Logan, The Guardian
“A laugh-filled show. Baddiel delights in taking on his Twitter trolls.” ★★★★ Veronica Lee, The Arts Desk / The i
“This show is so funny that, for all the effluent that swills around the Twitter cesspit, it could encourage even the most reluctant among us to sign up. Like!” ★★★★ Steve Bennett, Chortle
“A brilliant evening, somewhat in the vein of his previous show, My Family: Not the Sitcom. Baddiel investigates the horrors of personal assault by social media while managing to keep a large room laughing constantly.” Giles Coren, The Times
“It’s really, really good, really clever and beautifully put together.” Nihal Arthanayake, BBC Radio 5 Live
TOUR DETAILS
BRISBANE – Sun 10 May, Brisbane Powerhouse
MELBOURNE – Wed 13 May, Athenaeum Theatre
SYDNEY – Fri 15 May, Enmore Theatre
PERTH – Sat 16 May, Regal Theatre
CANBERRA – Mon 18 May, Playhouse Theatre
