Dom Joly: Why I'm excited to come to Doncaster to debunk conspiracy theories

The comic, travel writer and columnist, best known for his multi-award winning, global-smash-hit prankster television series, Trigger Happy TV will be in Doncaster on Thursday 29 October at 8pm, with tickets priced from £26.

Based on Dom’s latest book The Conspiracy Tourist – Travels Through A Strange World published in November 2023, the show will look at conspiracies surrounding Covid jabs, Flat Earth theories, UFOs and much more.

The show will provide a hilarious, fascinating, and slightly anarchic guide to the wacky world of conspiracies.

Having travelled the globe looking into some of the strangest and weirdest conspiracy theories in existence for his new book, Dom is now ready to tell us what he thinks.

However, he won’t be alone. In the spirit of balance, Dom has invited an infamous conspiracy theorist, Dr Julian Northcote, to take the stage and defend the alternative view.

I caught up with him to chat about whether Finland exists, his previous visits to Doncaster – and why he’s hated in Swindon.

Do you think conspiracy theories are more harmless then harmful?

“That’s a good question, the reason I wrote the book and why I do this tour is because I think they used to be relatively harmless. It used to be quite eccentric and quite fun.

"Unfortunately, I think they have now tipped over into something a little more dangerous. There is a quote that “in the old days every village had an idiot, but then they got online and got together.”

"I’m afraid that what we have in a lot of cases is a gathering of village idiots who have got the completely wrong end of the stick of stuff.

"But I don’t really mind people who believe in conspiracy theories. You can believe in whatever as long as it doesn’t affect other people.

"The problem I have is with grifters – people like Alex Jones and David Icke who are making a lot of money from stuff they don’t really believe in. which can have real world impact.”

Has the use of social media intensified the issues surrounding conspiracy theories?

“100% - every village had an idiot and then they went online and met other likeminded people and if you look online now, you can find anything to back up whatever view you have and find people of a like mind.

"When I was doing this book I set up a fake Instagram page of a conspiracy theorist and I followed some of the usuals in the conspiracy world and the moment the algorithim notices that you are interested in that, it just floods you with that information.”

What would be the most ridiculous conspiracy theory you’ve heard – and what’s the most realistic conspiracy?

“I think all conspiracy theories have a slight bit of truth at the base of them.

"But often they are just misinterpreted or people are too stupid to realise or too gullible to go with what the actual truth of them is.

"One of the most shocking is people believing Finland doesn’t exist so I went off in the book to try and prove it does exist.

"According to conspiracy theorists, Japan and Russia made up a country called Finland so they could have fishing rights to the Baltic Sea. So I thought I’d fly to Finland and just land there and ‘bang that’s the end of that conspiracy.’

"But of course if you have got your conspiracy mindset on, then you can’t prove that. They said I didn’t land in Finland, they said I landed somewhere In Russia or Sweden and the people I met

were acting to be Finnish.”

Since writing The Conspiracy Tourist are there any conspiracies you’ve started to believe?

“There are certain ones like UFO’s which are really interesting because for a start, I sort of believe in UFO’s.

"But I don’t believe in little green men.

"But there have been enough reports from commercial airline and fighter pilot sources you could believe which have identified flying objects in the sky.

"I’m not sure they are the aliens and I’m not sure what they are, but it all comes down to what is a conspiracy.

"I do think it’s a possibility that the story of Covid starting in wet market in a town called Wuhan in China from a bat is a bit weird when the largest coronavirus laboratory is half a mile away from that market.

"So its probably not beyond the realms of reason that something got out and obviously the Chinese government is not averse to keeping things quiet. But I also don’t think there was a plan to spread it around the world. I just think they f***ed up and thought s***, ‘we better keep this quiet.’

"So that’s probably the closest I get to thinking something has a bit of relevance to it.”

Is this going to be your first time in Doncaster?

“It will not be my first time in Doncaster. I think I’ve been to Doncaster twice but I don’t think I’ve done a gig here.

"But I’ve driven through a couple times. I wrote a book about five years ago called Such Miserable Weather where I pretty much visited everywhere in England on one long road trip. So I’ve been everywhere but yeah, I’m so excited to come to Doncaster.”

This being your latest travel book, you’ve now visited more than 100 countries. Which would be your favourite country visited?

“I’m obsessed with Algeria, I think it’s an extraordinary, weird country.

"Like Albert Camus wrote loads of books there. It used to be not just a colony of France but part of France.

"There’s amazing Roman cities that are completely preserved in the desert.

"I’m so excited to be going there. But my favourite country in the world is Lebanon where I was born.

“After visiting so many countries it’s still my favourite country. It has the best food in the world and the people are amazing.”

Before being a comedian, you were a diplomat. What would you say is your earliest memory of politics?

“My first political memory was finding out through my parents listening to the BBC World Service and hearing that President Nixon had resigned after the Watergate scandal.

“I remember them being blown away and talking about it and I was just thinking “what the f*** is this?”

"And then I think for me politically, the first thing I remember was being at school in 1979 and a guy coming into our class and showing a map of Britain.

"Margaret Thatcher had just won the election and I grew up the whole way through Thatcherism, so I do really remember those two moments really strongly.”

Do you have any regrets beginning in politics and then switching to television and writing travel books?

“F*** no, I have no regrets – you know, most people do their stupid stuff first and then get serious.

"But since my 30th birthday I’ve not done a serious thing in my life and I’ve loved it.”

Where did your ‘hatred’ for Swindon come from?

“Swindon became a joke because when I first moved out of London I lived near Swindon - and I realised I’d always use Swindon to describe somewhere a bit ugly.

"You know, I’d always say ‘looks a bit like Swindon’ and of course I didn’t quite think about it and people in Swindon got really angry about it and kept asking me what I had against Swindon and I didn’t really have anything against it.

"I more just used it as a joke. But I certainly don’t think Doncaster will suffer from that, don’t worry.”

How big an impact did growing up in Lebanon have on you?

“Well it was weird because I was English but living in Lebanon so everywhere, I felt slightly detached.

"And I grew up in a civil war. This amazing country was going through a war and that was very weird.

"But I was always this English kid living there when I was in school.

"And then I went to school in England and I was always the weird kid from Lebanon.

"So, I’ve always been something of an outsider. I’ve always been slightly floating above and that’s allowed me to be an observer and sit back and that’s what I like about travel writing.”

Having anxiety myself and hearing you also suffer from anxiety how do you cope with it when on stage or when performing?

“Well, if you get really bad anxiety, exercise is key but it’s also about being prepared. If you are prepared you aren’t anxious because you know what you’re doing.

"And nerves can be good before anything because they kind of sharpen you up and it’s just about the moment you get in - as long as you know what are doing.”

• Tickets for Dom Joly: The Conspiracy Tour at Cast, Doncaster on October 29 are available from the box office HERE