After nearly a decade as a performer he is starting to feel like an elder statesman. He is part of the last generation of comedians whose embarrassing early material does not crop up on YouTube. Modern technology means that everything is filmed and it cannot be wiped.
“I was lucky to be in at the start. Young comics now will be doing material they will regret because I know I did. There’s some stuff I did on Russell Howard’s Good News that I wish I hadn’t done and every time it gets repeated I get tweeted. If I could go back in time I would not have done it, but it’s there forever.”
He cringes when he recalls his early teenage years before his comedy awakening: “I was borderline right wing at one point. I always hated religion, not religious people, just religion.” He looks back on that time and feels that it was his parents and comedy that educated him rather than school: “Exams just show you can learn something in a set period of time. Meeting comics made me realise how horrible I was. As I grew up I learnt that it is nice to be liked.”
Sloss has been political for as long as he can remember - he was born on September 11, 1990 so the attack on the Twin Towers happened on his eleventh birthday - but this new maturity makes him more potent than ever as he cleverly builds ideas, weaving politics and punchlines together like his heroes Chris Rock and Louis CK. “It’s what I’m interested in. I want to persuade people by logic. I know what I believe now. Stuff winds me up so much I have to say something.”
He also talks candidly about relationships onstage. He has had long-term relationships, but is currently single: “I had a relationship for three years from the age of eighteen, then she went off to be a lawyer and I went off to be an idiot. We grew apart.” He might be older but he is not ready to settle down just yet: “Please accept that I’m allowed to be happy being single. I adore children but wouldn’t want one. I prefer being an uncle.”
His life on tour has been vastly improved by the advent of dating apps such as Tinder. “I’m on the road seven months of the year. I was in New York and I hooked up with someone via Tinder and we had a great five days together. Most relationships end badly, mine don’t, I just get the positive part.”
There was a moment in Scandinavia when he was in a bar and was chatted up by a Swedish woman. “It can’t be a coincidence that everyone is equal there and Swedish women are so confident…” Maybe with his spiky blonde hair he has a touch of the Viking about him? “No, Swedish women don’t like Swedish men. They are bored with each other because they are so beautiful. They find slightly less attractive people like me more interesting!”
If you want to know why he doesn’t want a serious relationship he reveals his reasons in full onstage. Sipping his water he says this: “I really really love my life. This is very selfish but you have to add something to my life to be a part of it and that’s very hard. I’m not saying it’ll never happen, but I’d need to be swept off my feet.” For a brief moment under that hard-bitten comedy exterior he sounds like a soppy romantic looking for love.
Daniel Sloss plays Bristol's Hen & Chicken tonight (Nov 17). His UK tour runs until December 10. He plays Soho Theatre on Dec 5 - 10. All dates and ticket details here.
Picture by Gavin Evans
