Dom Joly on The Wisdom of Crowds, holidaying in North Korea and using mobiles at Port Eliot

Thursday 28 May, 2015

Your new book Here Comes the Clown is published this week.  Can you tell us a little about it?

Yes –  I think I’ve possibly had the weirdest and most eclectic 15 years in show business and this book takes you through every up and down, every toe-curling moment… it’s like therapy for me, and a guide on how not to do showbiz for you...    

How much did Trigger Happy TV change your life - and did you anticipate it?

It totally changed my life. Suddenly I didn’t have to work any more and had a license to arse about – that is what the book documents. Trigger Happy's success was amazing but it brought with it a weird pressure – it also opened so many doors...    

You always play around with the idea of identity in your writing: is there much difference between the private Dom Joly and the one we see on screen?

Yes, the private Dom Joly is one that nobody but my wife and kids have seen – it’s a terrible thing to behold.  He’s like a Xanaxed version of my real self, who loves watching TV too much and gets too close to animals.

Most people know you from your TV work, but you’ve written journalism for over 15 years and have now published five books. Do you think of yourself more as a writer or a performer?

I’ve never been a performer. I happen to be good at improvisation within a hidden camera context, but that is not taken seriously in the UK. In the States I would have made Curb your Enthusiasm and be retired by now… What I really love doing is writing but it doesn’t pay the bills… yet...  

You’re a big presence on Twitter - what are your feelings about it as a medium?

I think it’s brilliant – I use it in a “wisdom of crowds” way – I have 250,000 random followers so someone always knows the answer, where to go, what to do… the only rule is don’t drink and tweet… a rule I break too often.  

What have been your cultural highlights of the past twelve months?

Film – 20,000 Days On Earth – the Nick Cave doc… awesome  

Books – I adored A Higher Form Of Killing by Diana Preston, and Jon Ronson’s So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed

Music – it was all about Future Islands and Marina and the Diamonds

In your book The Dark Tourist, you wrote about the world’s most unlikely holiday destinations - what’s the most extraordinary place you’ve visited?

The most extraordinary place ever has to be North Korea – so far out there that it is difficult to describe – like some totalitarian theme park where all the colour has been removed...    

What are you looking forward to about the festival?  Anyone you’re particularly keen on seeing onsite? My kids really want to come to Cornwall, so I am making their dreams come true...  

And what can the audience at Port Eliot expect from you this year?

Drunken confessions that will make a Cornishman blush.

The mobile reception at the festival is terrible.  Will you be bringing your phone?

I use telex – Mobiles are so last year...