Danny Wallace - The Man Who Tried to Start His Own Country

I first heard about Danny Wallace back in 2001, when he appeared on the Dave Gorman Collection. At the time, he was the flatmate of comedian Dave Gorman, and worked on his first two TV series - The Dave Gorman Collection and Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment. After this, they then went their separate ways. Danny's style is somewhat similar to Dave's, in that they both tend to go on real-life adventures and then write books about them. Here are Danny's main solo projects since parting company with Dave...

Join Me

Danny started a cult by accident. It all began with him asking people to join his club, even though he didn't really have one. It wasn't really very well-thought-out at all, and eventually he realized he was collecting members of a club that had no purpose to it. So he then decided that the purpose of the club would be to do a random act of kindness to a stranger every Friday. He named this club the Karma Army. This turned into a book, which I have read. It is very good.

Yes Man

Danny's next main project started just as randomly. His life was going nowhere, and he felt miserable. Then a random bearded man on a bus said to him, "Just say 'yes' more," and Danny took this advice literally. He then challenged himself to see if he could go an entire month saying 'yes' to everything. This got him into some difficult situations, but eventually it also dramatically improved his life as well. I've read the book, which is very good. It has since been turned into a film starring Jim Carrey, but I haven't seen that.

How To Start Your Own Country

In 2005, Danny made a TV series documenting his attempt to declare his London flat as an independent country. The whole thing was wonderfully entertaining all the way through. YouTube - Danny Invades an Island

Friends Like These

I am currently in the process of reading his most recent book, Friends Like These. It's about his search to track down his old friends from when he was 12 years old. It's quite a good read, partly because you know it's a true story, partly because of the story's heart-warming, life-affirming topic, but also because Danny has a very natural, friendly way of writing. It's almost like he's just chatting to you, or you're reading e-mails he has sent you.