"This
is a show you could see time and time again. Exceptional"
The Sunday Mail, Australia
Danny Bhoy began stand up in 1998 after going to see
his first comedy show at the Edinburgh Festival. A year later, he won The
Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award, Britain's biggest competition for comedy
newcomers. For the next two years Danny worked at as many clubs as he
could, up and down the UK, learning his unique stagecraft, and building up
for his much anticipated Edinburgh Festival debut. In 2001, Danny took his
first full length solo show to the Edinburgh Festival, where, within a
week, he had sold out his entire three-week run, and was forced to add
extra shows to cope with demand for tickets. As one critic described it,
"the young Scot is simply the hottest ticket in town."
The following
year Danny returned to Edinburgh with a new show which attracted more and
more fans, bowled over by his "razor-sharp mind, and quick-witted one
liners." Ultimately a room three times the size was not enough, with
extra shows added at the end of the festival. By the spring of 2003,
Danny's comedy started to take a different direction. He was beginning to
display a natural talent for story-telling on stage, and his comedy was
developing into shows with "considerable substance and
maturity." This was also the year Danny dipped his toe into the
Australian comedy market, where his first solo show at the Melbourne
Comedy Festival was described as a "stunning debut by one of the
finest observational comics around." The success of his live work led
to various TV appearances on high- profile national Australian TV shows
such as Rove Live, The Glasshouse, and the Melbourne International Comedy
Festival Gala.
In just his third Edinburgh Festival, Danny moved
into a 400-seat venue, and become the best-selling comedian at the box
office. His show about his travels around Australia was described as
"effortlessly funny" by one critic, and "the stand up
equivalent of Bill Bryson" by another. Once again, demand for tickets
was big enough to force extra performances. In November of the same year,
Danny was invited to perform on the Royal Variety Show, alongside some of
the biggest acts in the world.
In 2004, his star continued to rise at a meteoric
pace in Australia, and now New Zealand, where he set the record for the
most tickets ever sold at the New Zealand Comedy Festival. Returning to
Edinburgh with another new show in 2004, this time a hilarious, and
touching look at childhood, Danny played to sell-out crowds every night in
a 650-seat venue.
In 2005, Danny was invited to take part in the
prestigious Montreal Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, where he received
rave reviews for his barnstorming set on the televised Gala, leading the
Montreal Gazette to describe him as "the stand out hit of the
festival" and was nominated for a Gemini Award for the Best
Individual Performance at the Just For Laughs showcase. In November 2005,
Danny was also invited to take part in the inaugural Las Vegas Comedy
Festival alongside some of the biggest names in comedy including Jerry
Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Robin Williams, and Steve Martin.
The year 2006 began with an extensive tour of
Australia, including completely sold out seasons in Melbourne, Sydney,
Adelaide and Brisbane, then a tour of all the major cities and regional
towns in New Zealand, becoming the highest selling comedian at the New
Zealand Comedy Festival for the second year in a row.
His next move was a return to his home city of
Edinburgh where he became the highest selling comedian of the Edinburgh
Fringe Festival for 2006. January 2007 saw Danny embark on his biggest
tour yet, including 94 dates across Australia, beginning in Mt Gambier,
South Australia, selling out every show at the Melbourne International
Comedy Festival and Sydney's Cracker Comedy Festival, taking in all of
Australia's major regional towns and ending with a triumphant series of
shows at the Sydney Opera House where he filmed his Danny Bhoy: Live at
the Sydney Opera House DVD.
"[The DVD] will have you rolling around
on the couch for a good couple of hours... utterly charming and laugh out
loud funny."
Courier Mail, Brisbane
He followed the Australian tour with the prestigious
invitation-only Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal alongside
comedy legends Billy Connolly and Eddie Izzard:
"He had the crowd on side from the beginning and never let
go. No surprise he got a standing O."
Montreal Gazette
After another major tour of New Zealand in August
2007, Danny became the first ever stand up comedian from the UK to perform
in India. Three sell out shows in Mumbai promise a return some time in the
future, and further establish Danny Bhoy's reputation as one of the most
adventurous and popular comedians in the world.
"Scotland's Danny Bhoy is impressive.
His simple observations are delivered with hilarious punchlines and he
creates a remarkable intimacy with his audience. A must-see."
The Age, Australia
"his routines have the mark of those
which are quoted from, for years to come."
The Herald, UK