Dave Gorman Vs the Rest of the World

Dave Gorman Vs the Rest of the World

Summary

Remember when you were a kid, and you used to go round to a friend's house to see if they were playing? Well, as adults we're not supposed to do that. Which is a shame... because Dave Gorman likes playing. He REALLY likes games. So he knocked on the biggest door you could ever imagine - the internet - and asked 76,000 people if they fancied a game. This is the story of what happened next.

Dave was up for anything and gamely played them at whatever they chose. He played some classics - Monopoly, Scrabble, dominoes and cribbage. He played many games he'd never heard of before - Khet, Kubb, Tikal or Smite anyone?

He played board games and physical games. He's thrown sticks, balls, frisbees and darts. He's rolled dice and he's drawn cards.

From Liverpool to Hampstead and from Croydon to Nottingham, Dave travelled the length and breadth of Britain meeting strangers in strange places - their homes, at work, in the back rooms of pubs - and getting some hardcore game action. From casual players to serious game geeks, from the rank amateur to the world champion, he discovered a nation of gamers more than happy to welcome him into their midst.

He's travelled all around the country and met all sorts of people - and it turns out us Brits are a competitive bunch. And it seems that playing games can teach you a lot about what makes the British tick. Of course, Dave hasn't been keeping score. Much.

Reviews

  • There's a warm humanity to the book, built on the camraderie of strangers united in gamesmanship
    Chortle

About the author

Dave Gorman

Dave Gorman is an award-winning comedian, storyteller and writer. He has numerous TV writing credits and was part of the double BAFTA-winning team behind The Mrs Merton Show. His live shows have won many awards and he is the only performer to twice win the Jury Prize for Best One Person Show at the prestigious HBO US Comedy Arts Festival. He was the host of Genius, which ran for three series on Radio 4 and then two series on BBC2. He has appeared in numerous other TV shows, including Absolutely Fabulous, The Frank Skinner Show, Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His documentary film, America Unchained, won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the Austin Film Festival. His 2013 TV show, Modern Life Is Goodish, made for UKTV’s Dave channel, saw him dissecting the foibles of modern life in six hour-long comic performances. It quickly established itself as the channel’s most successful original programme that year and a further sixteen episodes have been commissioned for broadcast in 2014 and 2015. His ambition is to one day become a team captain on Call My Bluff.

www.davegorman.com
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