Express & Star

Comedy duo Dick and Dom talk ahead of Birmingham and Stafford shows

BOGIES! One simple word that sums up the Saturday mornings of a generation. Now, more than 10 years later, comedy duo Dick and Dom, or Richard McCourt and Dominic Wood, are back with their live tour.

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It reaches the Core Theatre in Solihull on April 22, Sutton Coldfield Town Hall on August 17 and Stafford Gatehouse on October 29.

The pair sat down with The Ticket to fill us in on what mad capers fans can expect from the show.

"Basically we split the crowd into two different teams so we have the Dick vs the Dom," says Dom.

"We play loads of different games, we bring the crowd up on stage to play games as well and then whoever wins the round gets a point for their team. Then the team with the most points wins!"

Nothing is this simple in the world of Dick and Dom – and anything can happen on their live tour, with each night promising to be different.

"We've been doing it for about five or six years now but this is the first time we've done it as a UK tour," says Dick.

"It's really good fun, it's one of those shows that has the same sort of feel as Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow with all of the chaos – you just don't know what's going to happen!"

"We can't wait to return to the Midlands, it has great audiences. We did our last tour in Birmingham in front of thousands of people and it was really warm."

Dick and Dom are famed for their own brand of whimsical chaos on our TV screens, a style that they adapted to stage in a flash.

"We've been doing this for more than 20 years now, so a lot of the ideas now have just been crafted over time that we know work," says Dick.

"The live show Dick vs Dom is basically a culmination of everything we've done over the years in one package. We're like one big joke book, one big file of different routines, show bits, festival bits and we just put all of that together for our live shows."

With such an extensive array of kooky highlights from their career – what's their favourite?

"We really have to look back at Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow for that, that's one of our favourite things that we have ever done, and obviously it had the very famous game 'Bogies' that has stayed with the audience ever since," Dick tells us.

"Obviously that audience has grown up now and we have taken it with us when we've done university tours. It's become a classic, it was on BBC One, BBC Two and all these digital channels afterwards for people to watch."

"The 'Bogies' game just sticks, I don't know what it is with it! It channels that sort of Horrid Henry and Dennis the Menace sort of vibe that people love," Dom continues.

"We brought it back recently for Comic Relief and doing it again, as 40 year olds, was just great!

"It's funny that most children who are watching us on BBC now, when you write bogies on an autograph they have no idea why you've put it!"

Dick and Dom's career started more than 20 years ago, after years of hard work.

"At the young age of 18 I was a tea boy and a runner and I started at the bottom and worked my way up," Dick tells us.

Dom adds: "As for me, I was a jobbing magician in the south west, and I used that in a job interview and just worked really hard.

"We were then both presenters for the CBBC but we weren't comedians really, then there was this props guy who worked behind the scenes and he used to be like 'oh, here comes Dick and Dom!' and it just stuck.

"From that moment we got picked up by producer Steve Ride and he just developed our act even more and then we discovered we could just do fun things. It just came naturally, it wasn't a conscious decision by us."

From this, a whole new generation of comedy lovers was born as children tuned into their TV screens to catch a glimpse of the raucous duo.

In 2002, iconic programme Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow first aired and it was a programme that changed the duo's lives forever and led to further shows such as Diddy Movies, Dick and Dom's Hoopla, Absolute Genius and more.

"Making the Bungalow was absolutely amazing. As teenagers all we wanted to do was to become CBBC presenters but moreso, the ultimate goal was to work on Saturday morning on BBC One." Dom enthuses.

"When we eventually got the call to say they wanted us to do that, we just didn't know what to do, it was amazing. That's just half the battle, the other half is just making sure everyone loves it and thankfully we succeeded.

"We all had an absolute riot making it, every single week we were howling with laughter. Everyone there genuinely was having the best time. It led to so many amazing things afterwards, it opened so many doors."

It's not just TV Dick and Dom have mastered, they've also had stints in theatre starring in the likes of Spamalot, Aladdin and Dick Whittington.

"It's instant gratification really, you see everyone having a great time in front of you," Dick tells us.

We wonder, what's coming up for the duo?

"We can't reveal everything yet, but we do have a lot of really exciting things to look forward to!" Dom says. "We're stacked up, and we do have some absolute crackers in the works, but we just can't reveal all yet!"

By Becci Stanley

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