Comedian David Poltorak

David first tried stand-up comedy in a previous millennium.

He’d always enjoyed making people laugh; with him or at him, he wasn’t fussed.

He claims he often felt he was the funniest person in the room, though he admits that was mostly when he was the only person in the room.

But he quickly found that getting laughs on stage was harder than he’d imagined.

Audiences were pretty feral back then, at least they were to David, so he only did a couple of gigs.

He decided he didn’t hate himself enough to put up with the abuse he was getting, not just from audiences but also from friends. He’d like to reveal some of the things that were said to him but won’t as he believes this is a family website.

So he put comedy aside, decided he’d have to think about it and in the meantime wondered if there wasn’t some other avenue he might pursue with greater success.

There was, and he did. (See David Poltorak in The Guinness Book of Records, 1989-1991 editions. And no, he isn’t the world’s tallest mountain.)

Nevertheless, the comedy itch was one he occasionally felt the need to scratch and unfortunately the odd wedding speech or eulogy only provided partial relief.

They do say timing is critical in comedy, and so after 30 years David decided the time was right to give it another crack. Once bitten? Yes. Twice shy? Apparently not. Besides which, he finally decided he did hate himself enough.

David is happy to report that this time round he’s found audiences to be a lot friendlier, and he takes that as an encouraging sign.

After two years of comedy gigging, David says he’s thrilled to be a part of ‘A Laugh And A Half’.

It’s been a longtime dream of his to join this group, a dream that even predates the group’s formation, which he accepts is quite spooky.  In the scheme of things, it’s perhaps only a small step, but David hopes it’s a step onto what will turn out to be a ladder.

David Poltorak was a Grand Finalist in the 2019 Comedian of the Year Competition.