Trigger Happy TV legend Dom Joly on Sunderland 'Til I Die and his Rocky Horror Show trip to the Dun Cow

The comedian’s new show is anything but ordinary and it comes to The Fire Station on Wednesday, October 23.

It’s a complete departure from Trigger Happy TV, the global hit prankster show which launched him to fame in 2000.

The Conspiracy Tour is based on his book the Conspiracy Tourist where he challenges people who, for example, believe that Finland doesn't exist, Bill Gates is using vaccines to control our minds and, of course, that the earth is flat.

The show is thought-provoking and a little scary, but above all - it's hilarious.

Dom spoke to the Echo ahead of the show.

You've been to Sunderland before

The last time I was in Sunderland I was doing Rocky Horror Show and we all went to the pub (the Dun Cow) dressed in character and had a brilliant time. We were in costume and no one batted an eyelid. Just another day in Sunderland. I loved it.

I'm not into football really, but I watched the documentary about Sunderland (Sunderland 'Til I Die) which I was obsessed with. I absolutely loved it.

Which is your favourite conspiracy theory?

I have lots of favourites. The whole thing started off with me in lockdown, a bit stuck online more than usually. I started getting into arguments with flat-earthers.

It's such a weird conspiracy. On one side it's so insane and anti-science. On the other side it's quite funny as well. But I love flat-earthers.

I met a 'square' flat-earther. They don't think the earth is round and flat. They think the earth is square and flat, therefore Earth has four corners and one of those corners is an island called Fogo of Newfoundland.

So I took a 'square' flat-earther to one of the 'corners'. I won't ruin it for the Echo's readers as to whether we found it or not.

The book starts with the theory that Finland doesn't exist. It seems in 1917 Japan and Russia conspired to invent a country called Finland, so that they could have sole fishing rights to the sea there, then take the fish to Japan.

Apparently when you land in Finland, you're not landing in Finland, you're landing in Sweden because they're in on it as well. All those people pretending to be Finnish are crisis actors. Basically Finland is a massive Truman Show.

During the gig I ask 'Do we have any Finns here?' and you get some quite disturbed Finns going 'What?! What are you talking about?’ - and I tell them they're not real.

Why do people believe them?

When I started writing the book I did did think that most conspiracy theorists were a bit thick; and crazy. But I’ve met a lot of them now and lot of them and they are not thick. If anything they over-think and get the wrong end of the stick.

But people worry about things and conspiracies theories have always existed. There was a massive anti-vax conspiracy around Spanish flu after the First World War, so things don't change too much.

As humans we don't like chaos and conspiracy theories give you a weird sense of comfort; they tell you that bad things aren't happening to you randomly, that you aren't just unlucky and that evil people, the Illuminati or whatever, are behind everything.

Weirdly I think that comforts people; gives them a feeling of having secret knowledge and having a bit of power back.

Online? There's a joke in my book that in the old days every village had an idiot. Then the village idiots went online and met up. That's a bit mean, but actually that's what’s happened because the algorithms drive you towards each other.

Once you start believing a conspiracy it becomes your identity; like a new religion.

I can see how easily people can fall down rabbit holes, so I have a lot more sympathy for conspiracy theorists.

In the old days conspiracy theories were quite fun. There were a lot about the Beatles; supposedly Paul McCartney died in a car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a clone.

But in 2016 Donald Trump's spokesperson, Kellyanne Conway, used the term 'alternative facts'. The moment that happened, everything changed, because before that we disagreed and argued around an accepted truth, but after 'alternative facts' everyone can have their ‘own truth’.

It's quite a frightening new world. Conspiracy theories have gone from being fun to really infecting the body politic and having an effect on our lives.

This is making it sound all too serious though. It's a funny show and funny book, but with some serious points.

If it was possible, would you un-invent the internet?

It's difficult. The internet has some amazing qualities, I spend my life on it. I love it. But it's directly responsible for everything.

I set up a fake Instagram page of a fake conspiracist and followed the usual suspects: David Icke, Alex Jones. The moment the algorithm spots that you're interested, it fired all sorts of nonsense conspiracy stuff to this fake page.

If you look at my fake and my real Instagram pages, they are living in different multiverses.

The real problem with the internet is that it doesn't do nuance. Most people are in the middle and the internet doesn't like that. I wants to drive us to opposite poles because conflict makes money.

It's why we got 'Brexit? Yes or no?' It's why we got Biden versus Trump, when we didn't want either.

Did you meet Alex Jones (US far-right conspiracy theorist)?

Yes. I knew he lived in Austin, Texas and tried to find him. I won't spoil the story, but I managed to break into his gated community and knock on his door.

All I'll say is that a gun was pulled. Not by me.

He went really dangerous and got a massive following and started denying school shootings and this is where he turned really dark and horrible.

He's a grifter. He's trying to make money out of scandal. He was targeting parents of kids who were killed and saying they were liars.

Do people like Jones and David Icke actually believe what they say themselves?

That's the big difference between believers and the grifters. I don't know if Alex Jones has been at it for so long that he actually believes what he's saying. But it's total nonsense and he knows a lot of it is nonsense. He's finally been sued for $1bn.

Where there's a conspiracy there's a money-making opportunity. You could accuse me of it.

Maybe David Icke believes it, but I don't think he does. If you read him online, there's some very dangerous anti-Jewish stuff. However reasonable he can appear, I think he's a really dangerous man. Russell Brand's another grifter at the moment.

Is the word 'theory' rather generous here?

They are theories, I suppose. What could you call them?

I've been to Finland. I'm pretty convinced that it exists. But if you didn't believe it and I had to conclusively prove to you, beyond all realms of doubt, that Finland existed, I could probably do it to about 98%.

But the 2% will say it's not true; that I was fooled.

:: Tickets for Dom Joly The Conspiracy Tour are from £25 from the Fire Station's website.

Also appearing is conspiracy theorist Dr Julian Northcote, who will prove that real ale had an ingredient which makes people liberal.