DAVE GORMAN

What sort of person or thing do I consider to be a SPIRITUAL WEIGHTLIFTER?

Well for me, it's something or someone who makes you feel, well, em, er... good. If listening, reading, tasting, smelling or whatever to them helps makes you feel like your troubles are a million miles away, then for me, they qualify!

My first SPIRITUAL WEIGHTLIFTER is British comedian, author, television presenter and many other things besides, DAVE GORMAN .

Reading or listening to his work (examples here, here and here) is just, well...uplifting. It just is! His projects and work, are so, well... downright weird, but at the same time so flipping wonderful, that one can't help but laugh at the very premise and concept, never mind the outcome.

Dave specialises in taking the most bizarre of notions, such as finding as many people as he can with the same name as himself! The thing is though, Dave doesn't so these things because there is particular artistic merit in the project, nor because it is going to change the world. He does so, simply because his mate challenged him to do it in a pub (look out for his mate being a SPIRITUAL WEIGHTLIFTER of the future)!

So, he sets out to find 10 Googlewhacks in a row, or 50 people called Dave Gorman, just 'cos his pal challenged him that it couldn't be done. How many of us have faced a challenge like that from a friend? Most of us, I'd guess. "Bet you can't balance a bottle of milk on your chin", "bet you couldn't climb Ben Nevis clad only in your underpants" etc etc - I've certainly been posed those challenges and others besides. But I never had the nerve or guts to actually try to meet any of those challenges. [Although I do know a man who's sellotaped bacon to famous landmarks around the world! But that person's story is best left for another day.]

As you read or listen to his work, you may find coincidences too convenient or notions too far-fetched - "can that really have happened?", you'll undoubtedly say - but that's the fun, six degrees of separation, as first stated by Frigyes Karinthy works if you try it, and somehow, so do Dave's tales. Your thoughts about the incredible convenience of the ending (that you should have seen coming) to one of his books, or the sheer unbelievability that he could have such a stupid thing are soon replaced (and I mean very soon) with the intensity of you willing him on. "Good for you Dave! Well done you! " you are bound to shout - well I know I did!

Dave's stageshow has met with accolades and the DVD of the show always used to be the first thing I'd turn to whenever I felt down. But, having unfortunately loaned it to a friend, I miss not having it to hand these days. [By the way, I say 'unfortunately' not because I regret giving it to a friend - I did so 'cos a felt their spirits could do with being lifted - but because they never returned it. However I know that their life is richer for having it to hand when they need it, so that's alright by me.]

So arise DAVE GORMAN, Drew's SPIRITUAL WEIGHTLIFTER No. 1.