Are You Dave Gorman?

Did You Know?

• Five people changed their names by deed poll to Dave Gorman, two of them women.
• The stage show acquired a cult following and several people helped Dave in his quest.

Evolution

The project began with a drunken bet between Dave Gorman and his flatmate Danny Wallace. Gorman claimed there were many people named Dave Gorman, citing the assistant manager of East Fife F.C. as an example; Wallace disagreed. They travelled to Methil, about 450 miles from London, with a Polaroid camera to meet that assistant manager, whose name was indeed Dave Gorman. Further trips followed to meet more Dave Gormans.

On one trip to New York, Gorman excluded a man because a metal plaque outside his offices read "B. David Gorman," justifying the exclusion with the statement "You've got to have rules." He did count meeting an actor who had once played a character called David Gorman. While travelling to meet Dave Gormans numbers four and five, they debated what "loads" meant, and Wallace settled on 54—one for each card in a standard deck including the two jokers.

They aimed to keep the average distance between Dave Gormans within roughly 300–500 miles to show the name was common but not too common.

Television show

The BBC gave Gorman a series, which he co-wrote and co-produced with Wallace. To avoid copyright issues, it was renamed The Dave Gorman Collection. The show mirrored the stage version, using televised lectures where Gorman recounted his quest. Pati Marr directed all six episodes.

After the series aired, Gorman and Wallace wrote a book, also called Are You Dave Gorman?. With the TV show done, Gorman stopped performing the stage show in the UK. He took it to international festivals and later did a three-month off-Broadway run, during which he appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman. As an inside joke, two Australian soap operas have featured characters named Dave Gorman.

The comedian has had to publicly ask people to stop emailing him about other Dave Gormans. The show came out on DVD on 19 February 2007, titled Are You Dave Gorman?, but it is sold only through his website and Recordstore.