It won't be repeated again during this run, but it will be on the Dave website for one more day. (Each show disappears from the On Demand service on Tuesday night when the next one is broadcast)
Anyway... I thought I'd write this because I've received a few hundred messages since episode two went out that all relate to the same thing
This, for example:
Susan Scott doesn't watch @DaveGorman's Modern Life Is Goodish on @Join_Dave - http://t.co/6XbyR299f3... and also this...
— Mark McKean (@WallaceEMann) September 29, 2013
@DaveGorman can I book your look a like for my girlfriends 30th birthday party?So it makes sense to me to try and add a bit of clarity.
— Leigh (@thegitzilla) September 29, 2013
Basically, a lot of people want to know about my "lookalike". A lot of people have seen that "he" is still on the Susan Scott lookalike agency website and then assumed that means Susan Scott and her staff still don't realise and haven't seen the show.
It seems only fair to them to clear that up.
The production team only found out what was really going on about an hour or two before the recording. At which point, everyone was in a bit of a headspin as they dealt with the fact that the show wasn't going to end in the way they had planned. But there wasn't any time for anger because everyone's focus was all about what we were going to do instead. (From my point of view it wasn't a big concern because seeing their confusion unravel as they realised that what they'd been planning as a surprise for me was actually even more weird and surprising for them was just making me laugh.)
The next day I got a bit of a telling off. But only a bit because we all knew that what had happened was better than what they'd been expecting to happen.
It was a day or two later that I got in touch with the people at Susan Scott Lookalikes. I called to explain and apologise. And I sent them some flowers. And they were brilliant about it. They took the whole thing in good grace - it was only a gentle ribbing after all - and, as I explained in the show, they didn't actually put a foot wrong. They did everything right. It wasn't as if anyone was playing a trick on them.
They really have been absolutely fantastic about the whole thing. And they've left "Martin A" on the site, not out of ignorance, but because they think it's a funny thing to do.
I gather also that a lot of people have contacted them and asked about booking Martin A. The truth is that if a booking had come in before the show had been broadcast I probably would have done it. Because being my own lookalike for punters who didn't know it was me would have made me laugh. But of course that didn't happen because of course there is no market for a me-lookalike. That would be preposterous.
But, now that the show's been broadcast, and the only people who are going to try and book him know that he's me... and they're contacting an agent who knows that it's me and, of course, I know that it's me too (I'm clever like that) there's not really anything to be gained by going through with it.
So despite his presence on the site, you'll find that Martin A has suddenly become strangely unavailable. After all, I can't afford to undercut myself by that much.
17 comments:
Excellent show Martin, uh sorry I mean Dave. Had me in stitches. Lets also not forget all the free publicity you have now given to the agency.
Lmao brilliant, I have to say this had crossed my mind too! Although have you now missed an amazing opportunity at the end of that message, to plug booking the real you at the real price for those who are such big fans that they find you priceless & would pay any price to be in your presence?! lol x
Hi Dave, now that Martin A has disappeared off the face of the planet, do you know of any Martin A lookalikes?
I was so hoping either you or your production team were going to pull a last-minute twin prank on the other, until I remembered you don't look all that much like your twin :)
@Scottishwildcat a few people have said the same... but I don't really understand how or why that could have happened or how or why it would have changed anything for the better.
Even if my twin did look like me (which, as you say, he doesn't) and even if he didn't have a job and a family and live a couple of hundreds of miles away (which he does), then there's no way the production team would have thought to get in touch with him because they'd already booked a lookalike. Or at least they thought they had.
So why would I have done? At what point would people have found out? Wouldn't it have looked like a sketch that we were all in on?
Out of interest, How much was an appearance at, say, a small childs birthday party by Martin A?
And also, how much for a bar-mitzvah appearance from the real Dave in Manchester next April?
Badgers don't vote.
I've been mistaken as 'DG' twice in recent years so does that qualify me as a lookalike?
If so I am available for weddings, store openings etc at reasonable rates!
@Andie Riley: I don't know what the going rate would have been for Martin A for that sort of thing because it never came up. And while I know your question about me isn't serious, I do get weird offers occasionally and I always say no. I don't really understand the idea of booking someone to be looked at. I put a show on in a theatre. I want people to come and see the show. Occasionally people want to book me to just be at a party or something... and I pass. I don't understand how anyone has the confidence to say, "yes, just looking at me or being in my presence is a pleasure for other people. I will sell that."
That's just too weird and conceited a notion for me!
@JG maybe you could speak with Andie R and negotiate?
@Dave Gorman My wife and I just thought it *could* have been funny if, say, your production team had actually just been pretending they didn't know the lookalike was you, and then getting your brother to make what would then have been a genuine surprise (to you) appearance on the show at the point your 'lookalike' had originally been booked to do so.
Obviously (disregarding the similarity of appearance issue!) that's not how things actually panned out, and under those actual circumstances it couldn't have happened. We just had an inkling while watching the show that somebody was double-bluffing and that's what was *going* to happen :)
@Dave Gorman (But yes, as you say—even with what would have been a genuine surprise reaction from you, it could still have looked like a set up.)
@scottishwildcat: fair enough. A lot of the comments have come with a more "but why didn't this happen?" sort of tone... and that's what confused me. Because the question appears to me to mean, "Why is the true story you told me not a different true story? Why is reality not the one I'm imagining rather than what actually happened?"
I thought it was brilliant and it had me laughing so hard. Well done to everyone involved for keeping their sense of humor after the fact.
I thought you had joined Strictly till it turned out to be a rugby player - maybe Martin A could widen his repertoire?
This show was repeated last night and I was delighted to discover that you are still on the lookalike agency website.
While I there, I had a wander around and discovered that almost half the country can pass as a Kate Middleton lookalike.
You must be very proud to be so unique.
Watching it a second time now. Still so well thought out and hilarious
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