How would you sum up Topical Storm?
I’ve been doing topical jokes about the news for around 20 years now, on shows like the News Quiz on Radio 4 and Have I Got News for You on TV. And I don’t know if it’s just me, but I feel like news has changed. When I set out to write the show it felt like stories were getting increasingly crazy, like we couldn’t even agree on reality. It used to be that there would be one set of facts we all accepted and then we’d have different opinions about them, right? But now anytime anything happens there are all these different bubbles and if you read the coverage in one paper versus another paper it’s like two opposite things. For example, there was that shooting by ICE in America recently and no-one could agree on what really happened. Things like that have inspired me to do a topical show that’s not really about the news itself but about how we get it through the media, blogs and AI, as well as gossip and the history of news consumption.
Can you tell us a bit more about the format of the show?
It’s ruminations and jokes about the ideas of news and satire. [Laughs] I always have a big idea, but at the end of the day it’s an hour of the best jokes I’ve written in the last year. I’ve got this deep thing that I’m exploring, but honestly if it’s a choice between a poignant point and a fart joke which makes everyone laugh then I go for the big laugh. But underneath the silliness I’ll be talking about the big stories of the past year, from P Diddy to Elon Musk doing a “salute”, and there’ll be a part of the show that changes every week to reflect what’s currently going on.
You’re sometimes in the headlines. What’s the wildest bit of gossip you’ve read about yourself?
The most memorable one that came out was that apparently, I have a dark strip club past. What really happened was that I did comedy in a strip club but saying in a headline “Britain’s Got Talent contestant’s dark strip club past!” makes anyone who is skim-reading think that I used to be a stripper. It’s that whole clickbait thing, where most people don’t read the article because they just respond to the headline.
What are your thoughts about AI when it comes to how people get their news?
AI has made it so much harder to distinguish between real news and fake news because now you can make a headline look real. Like, my father is a politician; he’s Malawi’s current Foreign Minister. I talk in the show about how last year a totally nonsense article about him went viral and it was so hard to get it taken down. It was kind of funny because it was implying that my father was going to be the next President of Malawi when he had no ambitions about that at all. Even in his party people were thinking “Oh, did you create this story to make yourself look good?” Malawi is a good case study because it doesn’t have the libel laws and stuff that you get in the UK. Whatever nonsense you see happening here, you can multiply that by ten in Malawi’s case. It’s absurd but it also creates lots of funny material. I mean, it seems like I’m in a relationship with every woman I’ve ever taken a picture with!
Is there anything that comedians and we as citizens can do about the topical storm you’re talking about?
What I’m trying to get at is whether or not satire makes a difference. We can reveal that someone’s racist and we can mock someone for their ignorance, but it doesn’t seem to change anything. In addition to my jokes in the show, I’m also asking: “Do we all have to be mini activists? Do we have to do more than just commentate?” I was an asylum seeker when I was a kid, so a lot of the anti-immigrant sentiment has struck a chord. I have a lot of social media followers and I’m going to be posting the interviews I’m planning to do with asylum seekers, just to kind of demystify the idea that they’re scary bogeymen. I’m frustrated by the news, so if there’s something I can do that has an impact then I should do it. In an ideal world everyone would be doing the same, however small the scale.
When it comes to comedy, is there a line you wouldn’t cross or is anything fair game?
My favourite movie, which has inspired me a great deal, is Life is Beautiful. It’s a comedy set in a concentration camp and it shouldn’t be funny but it’s hilarious because it’s mocking the victimisers, not the victims. That’s the basis on which I will take on anything, so long as it’s not in a bullying fashion.
When did you first discover you could be funny?
I was funny all my life, but I didn’t know it could be a profession. I was the funny guy at school and when I did debates, I was the guy who used humour to win. Then when I was in university in Canada, I discovered stand-up. I went to an open mic night and it blew my mind. At the time I was writing fiction, but when you publish a short story six months after writing it you get maybe one or two comments as feedback. With comedy there’s ongoing feedback every second of your performance and I found that to be extremely addictive. Once I found it, I just didn’t stop.
Why did you decide to move to the UK?
I had to leave Canada because of immigration problems. It was all my fault, because in Canada you can stay in the country for a year after you graduate but it’s got to be working in the sphere you graduated in. I graduated in computer programming, but I was doing stand-up comedy so essentially, I was breaking the law. I’ve been forgiven since and I’ve been back, but I was kicked out. I had a brother who was working as a doctor in the UK and when I visited him, I found ways to keep my comedy career going over here.
What was it like competing on Britain’s Got Talent and were you gutted not to win?
That was my Cinderella moment. I’d been a comedian for around 15 years at that point, and I was in a loop of doing little comedy clubs. I liked my life, but I wasn’t getting to the next level. I knew I was funny, I felt I was funny, and I wasn’t sure if I was being delusional, but it was a validation when I got on Britain’s Got Talent. That was the moment where I was like: “No, I really am funny.” I thought it would just lead to things like corporate shows, such as hosting the Coca-Cola Christmas party and stuff like that. But clips from the show went super-viral all around the world. A little kid did my jokes as part of his talent show at school and I would be in Malaysia and people would be like “Hey, golden buzzer guy!” As for not winning, I was only upset for one day. At the after-party Simon Cowell saw I was looking grumpy, and he said: “You’re not happy cause you didn’t win, but just wait and see what happens tomorrow.” And he was right because the next day my phone was ringing off hook with so many offers.
You’ve since been in Dictionary Corner on Countdown and you won Celebrity Mastermind. Is there anything you’re not so knowledgeable about?
I don’t know anything about sports. I’m a geek, so I know all about science fiction and my specialist subject on Mastermind was Babylon 5. And I’m a history buff, as people who listen to my radio show will know. My head is full of nonsense. I always feel like comedians are trivia experts because we know a lot about absurd things. Last year I read about nuns in Austria who fled a nursing home and went back into a convent. I could talk about that for 20 minutes, but if you ask me about NATO then I know nothing.
When you’re on the road with a show, is there anything you can’t leave home without?
I have a mascot, which is a panda. I was alone during the pandemic, and I was so miserable. So, I got a stuffed panda to keep me company and I called him Pandemic the Panda. When I went back out on tour people who’d seen my Coronacast Comedy Show would ask me “Where’s the Panda?” so now I take him on tour with me.
The tour calls at Peterborough. Does it have any significance for you?
Peterborough audiences always seem to be up for a good time. I’ve played there before and it’s always a pleasure to be back.
Don’t miss Daliso Chaponda at the Key Theatre Studio, Peterborough on Sunday 10th May!
