Who Dares Grins

Schadenfreude, the Germans call it – taking pleasure in the misfortune of others. It’s nasty, but we all enjoy doing it. So much so, in fact, that it’s surprising an equivalent English word has not yet been thought of. Doing their best to bring the concept to life on our TV screens over the next few weeks, however, will be Andrew Stanley and Damian Clark, an Irishman and an Aussie respectively, who have left themselves at the tender mercies of the public by agreeing to film themselves carrying out a series of dares sent in by text and email. The show is called simply I Dare Ya and seeks to bring some of the spirit of Dom Joly’s madcap public stunts to an Irish environment.

Both Stanley and Clark are active stand-up comedians, but were looking for something to fill the long hours between rising from bed and bounding onto the stage in the likes of The International or The Comedy Cellar (where Stanley is the resident MC). The idea that eventually germinated into I Dare Ya happened at their very first meeting.
Stanley picks up the story: “We just met at a lunch one day with mutual friends and the first conversation we ever had, I dared Damo to drink nettle tea for some reason,” he recalls. “He drank it, and only realised afterwards that it’s a diuretic.”
Clark has been based in Ireland for two years now, having made his name in the comedy clubs of Perth and Melbourne in his native Australia. “His lovely lady was the main reason he came over,” reckons Stanley, “but also I think the comedy scene is probably better here than it is in Australia.” Shortly after this fateful meeting, the duo began working on the concept for I Dare Ya. Stanley believes that Ireland is probably the best country in the world to film a show of this kind. “The Irish are definitely into this kind of thing,” he says. “They just love seeing people being embarrassed and people going through pain – I don’t think there’s any other country where your mates slag you off more than anyone else in the world. Your enemy might slag you, but your mates are definitely going to slag you more here.”
Similar to Des Bishop’s TV forays, I Dare Ya will take the format of the perpetrators introducing clips to a stand-up audience. Nearly 40 individual dares were recorded for the show, with about 25 making the cut for the final six episodes, which are currently being recorded in front of live audiences in Dublin’s Laughter Lounge. I ask Andrew if he can give us a sneak preview of any of the stunts coming up. “The one that seems to be getting the biggest reaction so far is where we both get an all-over body wax,” he says. “It was kind of alright for Damo because he’s not that hairy, but I am – sorry, was – very hairy and it was extremely painful for me. It took them about an hour just to do my chest!” Sounds horrific. The duo may (and by ‘may’ we mean ‘did’) also have something to do with the photo of gardai stopping a Fiat Punto with a cheeky cardboard ‘Taxi’ sign on its roof that was making its way around message boards and emails a while back.
The programme’s website specifies only two rules for those proposing dares for Andrew and Damian – no breaking the law, and no grievous bodily harm to themselves or others. It may have been the latter proviso that stood in the way of one proposal. “We were supposed to drink two bottles of laxative,” remembers Stanley. “But then we did some research and found out that a normal dosage is 10ml. A bottle is 300ml, so we would have been in severe pain and it would have stopped filming for a week!” He says this is the only suggestion that wasn’t carried out and all the rest have been done ‘to the best of our ability.’
Putting yourself up for public humiliation like this is a pretty nerve-wracking experience. But how does it compare in that respect to doing stand-up? “Stand-up is pretty scary at the start – it gets easier as time goes on, but I’d never say it’s easy,” reckons Stanley. “Sometimes it can be very frightening depending on the crowd or if it’s a venue you haven’t played before. Personally, I find the dares a lot worse. I don’t know why that is, I think I’m shy in public which is very strange given the line I’m in!”

I Dare Ya! premieres on RTÉ2 on November 12. An episode of the show will be recorded live in The Laughter Lounge, Dublin on November 5. Email [email protected] with the header ‘I Dare Ya tickets’ to request tickets.