Meeting Dom Joly

“Funny. Frank. Fearless. In fact, if he weren't already called Dom Joly, that would be a much better name for him.”
-Danny Wallace, TV/ Radio comedian

The star of Trigger Happy TV and the author of new travelogue The Dark Tourist was in Manchester on Thursday 9th, to sign copies of the book.

Dom Joly tried to visit the worst places in the world as research for the book's subject matter. At Deansgate Waterstones, he read a section about his attempt to break into the Texas Book Depository and to stand exactly where Lee Harvey Oswald did when lining up the most infamous of shots. The chapter describes a Texan security guard busting him, confiscating his camera and booting out of the building. Joly also recounted tales of segregated skiing in Iran, where- due to strict laws, he learned to asked shady types for “pizza” whenever he wanted booze.

He described visiting Chernobyl and getting dangerously close, the risk punctuated by the Geiger counter beeping so frequently it hummed. He called Kiev the “mullet capital of the world”. He also mentioned mulletwatch.com, which doesn't seem to be an active domain at the moment, but featured photographs of the crap haircuts from all over the world. Elsewhere in Russia he passed out after drinking Samagon, a home-made vodka, which he described as “the weirdest part of the tour”.

He saw the dictatorship lifestyle of North Korea (mentioning that “Bean” was the first movie to be played there that didn't require a man translating everything through a loudspeaker).

Joly's most fascinating fact- he grew up in Beirut, Lebanon, where he attended the same school as Osama Bin Laden. At different times, he assures us.

Keep your eyes peeled for information on a Trigger Happy movie. Joly says it's just an idea at the moment, but this time the public won't be subjected to hidden camera pranks featuring men dressed as giant rabbits. He will be looking for members of the public to get purposefully involved in this project- although in what capacity is still under wraps.

Speaking of keeping things under wraps: Joly mentioned he was staying at the Lowry Hotel, which he was amused to find was the same place that Manchester United player Wayne Rooney recently had an affair with a prostitute.

I got a signed book and a photo with Joly. Hurrah!

Here's his Twitter account- it's unverified, but I can confirm it is authentic- it includes a picture of the book store we were in.

http://twitter.com/domjoly