Danny Bhoy

Find a seat at an old bar in Scotland and after a day of listening and watching, nothing else, chances are you’ll have a bank of stories and characters locked in your mind for another day. As a youngster, Danny spent much of his time at his uncle’s bar, watching as farmers, builders and bakers would slide through the old doors for their daily refreshments.
“I remember the characters because it was a rural part of Scotland,” he adds with a chuckle, no doubt some in-joke of what “rural Scotland” pertains, “They’d all come in at different times of the day and perch themselves on the bar, have a whiskey and tell you stories.”
“When I look back now I go, ‘God, that was chronic alcoholism’, but at the time it just seemed like such a gentle way of life. There’s no doubt about it, I owe a lot to those guys. They’d just come in and say ‘I’ve had a hell of a day’ and they’d tell you about it and have the place roaring with laughter.”
Whether it was by sheer influence, or a knack few pertain, Danny became a keen observer. Spend a passing moment with the Edinburgh comedian, perhaps stand in line with him at the supermarket, and if you’ve got a memorable personality it may just resurface on stage.
“It’s even worse than that!” Danny laughs as I question his ability to mimic others.
“I’ll have a conversation with someone and later I’m regaling that conversation either on stage or off stage. I immediately go into their character and start doing their voices and mannerisms – these are people I’ve never met before but just met once fleetingly in a shop or something. For some reason my brain just logs everything about that person; their accent, they way they move and little mannerisms and it becomes impossible,” he says.
“When I was a kid I used to make impressions of my teachers. But I never really practiced them, they just came out. I remember one time my English teacher – who hated me – walked into the class one time as I was doing an impression of him and someone had obviously tipped him off. He said, ‘Danny, you better sharpen up on your impressions because we’re going to show it in front of the assembly and I’m going to ask you to do impressions of some of the teachers’. I was absolutely mortified. All the teachers were there and I had to go up and do a little skit, it was bizarre. I look back at it now and think, ‘What was he getting out of that?’”
One Billy Connolly DVD later, gifted to him by his parents, and Danny had a newfound respect and concept of what being a comedian was. He took to completing his “bucket list” and performed a show, which soon lead to winning a competition which enabled him to quit his day job.
“It took me by surprise too,” he says honestly of his rapid rise to becoming the comedy king.
“It was really surreal because it was just something I did as a thing in the evening and then all of a sudden it was an actual profession.”
Many would say that Danny is one of the greatest and most-loved comedians in the world, and while this is true, I’d say his skills as an observer are what places him in such a respected position. Travelling around the world, and described as a “Commonwealth comedian”, Danny still remembers the he visited Geelong that one time.
“It’s very kind of Home and Away isn’t it? I’ve always had a good time there,” he says pausing, “I definitely know that what I’m seeing is Geelong.”
Written by Amanda Sherring
When & Where: Costa Hall, Geelong – April 2 & Hamer Hall, Melbourne – April 3, 4 & 5