WHERE do you go after becoming famous for shouting into a big phone on television?
It’s a lesser-trodden career path and has meant that the ten years since Dom Joly hit the big time with absurdist hidden camera show Trigger Happy TV have been somewhat confusing. Welcome To Wherever I Am recaps Joly’s projects since the halcyon days of success and critical acclaim garnered by his most popular project. In his own words it is a “tenuous story about my search for a role”.
Less stand-up and more autobiography, Joly talked through his remarkably game approach to the years, from doing another hidden camera show for the BBC, to drinking his way around the world for Sky, to bunking up with “wizened old troll” Gillian McKeith in ITV reality show I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.
His lack of career clarity extended to the very nature of the show, which Joly was keen to point out was a one-off tour and definitely wasn’t stand-up. Confusing though the format of the show was, Joly’s memories, punctuated with photos and film footage from his career, were very funny – even though it won’t have escaped his notice that the biggest laughs came from Trigger Happy TV clips.
While his material was slightly underwhelming, Joly is an extremely likeable comedian who will fall on his feet time and time again. And despite the D-list nature of some of his career choices, one doesn’t feel too worried for Joly’s future.
The details he let slip – his job with The Independent, his former Notting Hill flat and new Cotswolds country pad neighbouring Liz Hurley – reassure the audience that he’s probably going to be okay.
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