Danny Bhoy

Danny Bhoy

Real name: Danni Chaudhry
Born in the Scottish spa town of Moffat, Danny Bhoy began stand-up in 1998, soon after completing a history degree. He said he caught the comedy bug after walking past an Edinburgh pub and hearing a commotion inside. He discovered it was an open-mic comedy night in progress, and from then he was hooked.

Within his first year, he won The Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award, and in 2000 performed as part of the Comedy Zone showcase of up-and-coming stand-up talent at the Edinburgh Fringe. The following year, he performed his first solo show at the festival, and has returned every year since, except 2007.

He has also become a regular at several international festivals. He made his debut at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2003 and in 2005, he was invited to both Montreal's Just For Laughs Comedy Festival and the inaugural Las Vegas Comedy Festival. He returned to the Montreal festival in 2007, where he was given the rare chance to perform a ten-night solo run, and that year he also embarked on his first major tour of Australia, with 94 dates. He now spends half the year in Australia.

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Official Website

Omid Djalii etc at Greenwich Comedy Festival

Note: This review is from 2015

Greenwich Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett

Zero stars for the food stall that takes more than 20 minutes to get a bag of chips... But isn't that typical of a comedy-in-a-tent festival? The feeling of something special overwhelming any reservations that there might be a more practical way of doing things.

And when you have a setting as gorgeous as the Greenwich Comedy Festival - in the grounds of the National Maritime Museum, with views through the historic Royal Naval College to the glittering Canary Wharf skyline beyond - that sense of occasion is heightened further.

The scale of the event also allows for some A-list booking to ensure the audience are left in very capable hands, as Thursday-night compere Dan Atkinson quickly established. That he used to be a local lad gives his ‘posh area versus rough area’ badinage extra resonance, though he’s surprised at just how many cheers when asked who’s from Greenwich.

He certainly has the banter, in its true meaning before its misappropriation by the ‘lads’, with cheeky storytelling and and even cheekier insults for the overweight blokes who paraded in front of the stage en route to their seats, adding a surprising frisson to his usual friendliness. He tells us a bit about himself, and his move out of the city after becoming a father, but his accidental choice of words that we had acts to ‘get through’ was unfortunately dismissive to the accomplished line-up.

Danny Bhoy has a masterful control of pace and timing as he regales his stories of when logic has gone askew. In some of them, such as the fancy restaurant which demands he wear a jacket he doesn’t have or his teenage grapplings with an oral French exam, the course of the routine can be obvious, but the way he draws it out makes for a seductive tease.

That evocative scene-settings combines with some elegant turns of comic phrase on everything from the length of his singledom to the tightness of hotel sheets to make for a classy set, despite a few more predictable ‘what’s the deal with…?’ observational snippets.

He certainly endears himself to the ‘room’, and in a similar vein it’s hard to image someone who couldn’t be charmed by Joe Lycett’s disarming camp. In some ways he’s the successor, in toned-down form, of Larry Grayson, gossiping freely about the shortcomings of friends and enemies alike – from ruinous, boozy pal Clare to the laddish TA squaddie he encountered on a stag do who’s alpha-male facade is the polar opposite to Lycett’s easy-going, flirtatious charisma.

Even in this large marquee, he comes out of the spotlight and sits on the front of the stage to establish both intimacy and to level the statuses: he’s on the same level as the audience,no better or worse. Though comedically, of course, he’s so much better. And while all seem like gossip, Lycett slips in some social points about the likes Islamophobia – but quickly undercuts any potential pomposity with a sharp line.

Finally, Omid Djalili, who’s long had the chops to work almost any room, with his mix of ethnic stereotypes (Egyptian football commentators and stubborn Nigerians get a mocking tonight), old-school entertainment and forceful performance techniques. He plays up any potential offence he might have caused on TV appearances to raise the jeopardy – even though the payoff is almost universally playful. Only when he says ‘retard’ does the room bristle a bit.

But primarily he knows Britain’s love of the old-school joke, admired even as they get groans. He serves that appetite well, an formidable vaudevillian spirit coursing through every cheesy punchline or exaggerated caricature. He, too, wins some local brownie points – in his case for affectionate mention of the late Malcolm Hardee, doyen of Greenwich’s Up The Creek club. It’s training in sometimes bawdy venues such as that which has given Djalili his dominant, almost interruption-proof, persona.

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Published: 19 Sep 2015

Danny Bhoy

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Danny Bhoy

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Danny Bhoy

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Danny Bhoy

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Past Shows

Edinburgh Fringe 2001

Danny Bhoy


Edinburgh Fringe 2003

Danny Bhoy


Edinburgh Fringe 2004

Danny Bhoy


Edinburgh Fringe 2005

Danny Bhoy


Edinburgh Fringe 2006

Danny Bhoy


Edinburgh Fringe 2008

Danny Bhoy: By The Way


Edinburgh Fringe 2010

Danny Bhoy: By Royal Disappointment


Edinburgh Fringe 2012

Danny Bhoy: Dear Epson


Edinburgh Fringe 2014

Danny Bhoy: 12 Nights, 12 Charities


Montreal 2009

Britcom gala 2009


Agent

We do not currently hold contact details for Danny Bhoy's agent. If you are a comic or agent wanting your details to appear here, for a one-off fee of £59, email steve@chortle.co.uk.

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