David Baddiel brings his troll-tackling quest to Bath

After a year and half’s pause, comedian, author and screenwriter David Baddiel is back on a live stand-up stage, touring the rescheduled dates of his critically acclaimed 2020 show Trolls: Not the Dolls.

It is the latest in a series of hit solo shows Fame: Not the Musical (2013) and My Family: Not the Sitcom (2016), which earned him a wealth of plaudits, a West End transfer and an Olivier Award nomination.

We caught up with him ahead of his show at The Forum, Bath, to see what audiences can expect from the show, and learn how he goes to the dark places to find the light beyond them.

How’s the tour going? Are you enjoying the return to live comedy?

“Very well. I’m enjoying it very much. At first I was worried – I’ve never had to put a show in the freezer for 18 months before (I began it in January 2020 and it was furloughed in March) – but once I got back onstage having rewritten it a bit to take account of all the weirdness, audiences seemed to be more up for it than ever.”

Your show tackles trolls. Have they ever phased you? Do you always confront, rather than block them?

“I don’t always. Certainly not now, as I can’t look at all responses anyway, I’d never do anything else. But my sense when they started was to treat them like hecklers – which they are, they are furious anonymous people shouting insults at you from the dark – which meant not getting angry with them or ignoring them but trying to make their insults funny. So I did that, and people seemed to like it, and that was the seed of this show. I would say I hardly ever ‘confront’ them: I embrace them, but in a way that makes them look silly.”

Have you got any reassuring words or advice to people affected by trolling?

“Well the show does that in a number of ways, but basically: laughter. I find that even if I am for a moment hurt by something someone has said, if I can think of something funny to say in return, the hurt dissipates, and I basically think: thanks for the material.”

Who should come to your show? What might they learn?

“Anyone. It actually absolutely does not require any audience member to ever have been on social media, or trolled or whatever. It’s just a show about how we live now, with all the outrage and madness, filtered through mainly jokes I’ve put out there online. I use a screen and I’ve noticed that a lot of it is basically just me doing jokes as per normal but with that added spin of ‘look what happens to jokes now!’ Plus actually a lot of it, towards the end, although I go to some very dark places, is kind of uplifting – I show how much joy and wit and fun there is out there as well.”

Are you attracted to exploring the darker side of humanity in your comedy?

“Yes. I think – for me – one of the main purposes of comedy is its use as a weapon against stuff that we have no real weaponry against – death, illness, all the toxicity and badness out there – it all can feel better at least if you can find the funny in it. But I also am attracted to very silly and childish jokes.”

Is it important to you to be truthful, or to be liked?

“Any comedian who says he or she doesn’t want to liked – when they’re doing a job that basically involves going on stage every night and asking for the approval of strangers – is lying. However: for me personally it’s more important to be truthful.”

David Baddiel – Trolls: Not the Dolls is on October 24 at The Forum, Bath, Tickets are available at www.davidbaddiel.com.

Main image: Avalon

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