Comedian and YouTuber Daniel Howell: ‘I like to break the ice with a state of terror’

Although he has appeared live on stage at festivals and events, renowned comedian, YouTuber and best-selling author Daniel Howell’s upcoming solo comedy world tour will be his first.

Optimistically titled We’re All Doomed!, the tour includes dates in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, as well as the UK, with a stop at the Cambridge Corn Exchange on September 22.

The 31-year-old, speaking to the Cambridge Independent from his home in London, was keen to learn more about the historic venue. “Can you tell me the history of the Corn Exchange, do I need to know something before I go there?” he asked. “I guess they exchanged corn there once?”

I explained that corn was indeed exchanged there – as it was at other Corn Exchange venues around the country. In fact, it got off to a rocky start following the grand opening on November 8, 1875.

A promenade concert was held, featuring the Coldstream Guards and a local choral society, at which a mistake was made during the National Anthem and riots broke out, leading to an attack on the mayor’s house.

Corn trading was interrupted by the sheer number of sightseers who visited the site as the notoriety of the event spread. “Interesting,” says Daniel, who describes himself as a “cripplingly anxious, generally anti-social, slightly people-loathing introvert”, “and now it’s a theatre... What kind of spaces do people exchange corn in? Should I be expecting a cattle area?”

Daniel is currently building the set for the show. “I’m always trying to build a tower up to God, just to say hello to the people at the back,” he explains, “and also fill as much space up as possible because even though I’m a very long man, when it’s just you in the black expanse of the theatre box, it’s scary.”

What will the set look like? “Well no direct spoilers but I’m trying to make it look apocalyptic and very scary,” notes Daniel, “I want it to physically intimidate the audience!

“The endgame is for everybody to have a fun evening, but I like to just break the ice with a state of terror and then kind of work them back after they’re vulnerable...”

Daniel made his name by uploading videos onto YouTube from 2009, after spending four years watching videos on the site when he should have been studying.

He says the show will be “mostly standing up and attempting to entertain people” but he will at some point “inevitably crouch in the corner of the stage to try to get sympathy, for some reason.”

Addressing the show’s bleak title, he continues: “It’s a show about how I’ve been feeling for a while now, because the world’s been a bit weird for a couple of years, let’s just say, and it got to the point where I just got very overwhelmed by the entire concept that every single day we are constantly bombarded with the realisation of all of these scary, terrible things that are happening with the world – general signs of where humanity’s going...

“We have to try to put on a brave face and then somehow go about our day-to-day lives as if the world isn’t on fire! As if anything has any meaning whatsoever, and basically I’m having this personal existential crisis and kind of state of panic about the future of humanity and I just want to share my burden – put that burden onto others so I feel better about myself. That’s the mission.”

This state of mind wasn’t the only reason for the apocalyptic title, however. “Well I did think it would mainly be funny if you walked past the Cambridge Corn Exchange to just see ‘We’re all doomed’ put up in giant letters outside... So yeah, let’s be honest, mainly that and then I tried to work backwards and go, ‘Do I have an opinion that I want to do a show about?’”

People of a certain age will recall the catchphrase of Private Frazer in the BBC sitcom Dad’s Army, of course. “They would indeed,” agrees Daniel, whose online content has received billions of views, “and that’s a good point of reference too, and also accurate! I relate to that, emotionally.”

Although known for his savagely self-deprecating and sarcastic humour, has Daniel always had such a negative outlook? “Well I don’t know if I have a negative outlook, I think I have a pragmatic outlook,” he observes, “and it just so happens that there’s a lot of negativity!

“I’ve spoken about this before when I’ve talked about my mental health or the journey that I’ve been on – the whole there and back again journey with my sexuality – where I have not always had the best and most enjoyable time in life, and I think that having to put up with a lot of adversity has made me very strong on the outside.

“I’m quite resilient but I’m also very cynical, and I guess what I’m trying to explore in this show is, ‘Are we all doomed, or is everything going to be OK’, because a therapist will always say to you, ‘If you talk about your problems you feel better about them’.

“So I figure we’re probably all thinking about these things – let’s just put them out on the table, be honest about what’s happening, how we feel. Maybe we’ll realise there’s some hope for the future and everything’s going to be all right.

“If not, if we make some inappropriate jokes about it along the way, at least we’ll have had one good laugh before we all go up in flames! So I think it’s a win-win.”

Daniel is determined to put on a good show. “I’m very, very excited,” he says. “I’ve been privileged to have spent so many years doing loads of different stuff, trying to do YouTube, I’ve been on Radio 1, I’ve done documentaries, I’ve presented...

“I have a really good idea of how an audience is going to have a good time in the room, and of all the things that I’ve done, there is nothing as fun and gratifying as just doing a show live in person and seeing people have fun.”

[Read more: Comedian Leo Kearse: ‘You’ll see more exciting stuff in the clubs than you will on the BBC’, Comedian Bobby Mair: ‘The show’s called Cockroach, but it’s not harrowing....’]

Interestingly, Daniel was applying to the University of Manchester to study law at the same time he started making YouTube videos. “I do sometimes think there is a parallel universe somewhere where I might be representing someone in a court of law – and that’s terrifying,” he says.

“So I think it’s better for society that instead I’m just a sad clown. But it’s funny how these things happen.”

Daniel Howell will be bringing his We’re All Doomed tour, which kicks off in Ipswich on September 10, to the Cambridge Corn Exchange on Thursday, September 22. For more information, visit cornex. co.uk. For more on Daniel, go to danielhowelldoomed.com.