I’m not trying to debunk conspiracy theories... I’m just observing everything

DOES FINLAND EXIST AND ARE UFOS PILOTED BY LIZARDS? DOM JOLY TALKS TO MARION MCMULLEN ABOUT EXPLORING THE WORLD OF CONSPIRACY THEORIES ON HIS NEW TOUR

Do you enjoy a good conspiracy? There’s a spoof conspiracy that pigeons have been replaced by drones, but it’s not as crazy as some of the real conspiracy theories out there.

It used to be conspiracy theories were all about landing on the Moon and Elvis working in a chip shop, but turning things into a world truth is a whole other thing.

Everyone has their own truth about almost everything out there.

It’s a multiverse. And then there is the online craziness.

You think, “are they just doing this for clicks or do they really believe it?”.

Once you start looking at all of this it is easy to go down the rabbit hole, but it can be dangerous.

When all the Covid conspiracy theories came out, I actually had a very good friend in hospital.

How did your new book and tour come about?

I’m not trying to debunk conspiracy theories. I’m just a tourist observing everything.

I’m a travel writer and I thought it would be a great excuse to travel and look at some of these conspiracy theories. I wanted to look these people in the eye.

America is a petri dish of conspiracy theories. I never get bored with America. It is just so vast and so different.

The road trip for the book involved a trip across both coasts and I really wanted to go to New Mexico because I’ve watched too much Breaking Bad, and I investigated UFOS with a visit to Roswell.

In Austin their motto is ‘Keep Austin weird’ and it is a little oasis in Texas. I love Austin.

I popped into Denver International Airport, rumoured to be the assembly point for the Illuminati come the Rapture; I looked into the JFK assassination in Dallas, and I chased (US conspiracy theorist) Alex Jones, the Info Wars grifter, around Austin.

What was it like travelling with your wife to research the book?

As a travel writer you want things to go wrong and you need to go on your own – getting into trouble, hanging out with people and doing different things.

I think my wife [Stacey] was a little disappointed going to Finland to look at the conspiracy theory that Finland does not exist. [Chuckles] She’s not asked to come on another trip.

What do your family think of your trips around the world?

I think absence makes the heart grow fonder. We went on a family trip from Cheltenham to Istanbul when the kids were 10 and 13, and we went to amazing weird places.

Stacey is Canadian and travelled the world for three years before we were married. I love road trips, we all do, I think it’s in the blood.

My daughter Parker just graduated from Oxford Uni and is now working at the university looking into a cure for Alzheimer’s.

My son Jackson has just started at Durham and has exceptional music taste, which I like to think that I had a part in.

We are a very argumentative family. We once drove across the Canadian Rockies in a motor home. If we had recorded the trip, I am convinced that we would have had the best reality show in history… except for Below Deck.

Do you have any travel rituals?

My usual pre-flight ritual is to treat myself to half a bottle of champagne and a prawn cocktail.

It started years ago because I did not want my last meal on Earth to be aeroplane food if there was a terrible accident.

It’s an expensive ritual though. I think

I am served one prawn fewer each year and charged a pound more.

Are you an expert when it comes to packing for trips?

I’m quite good when it comes to packing – lots of non-iron, crumple-free shirts and I’m ready to go. The only thing that weighs me down is I have sleep apnea and I have this contraption I use at night that I have to cart around.

I’ve had this great Red Oxx bag with six compartments for years and the company replaces it if it wears out.

An old travel writer once said “pack your bag and then open it and take half of the things out because you won’t need half of them”. In the Congo I once had to make a quick exit from a village and leave everything behind.

What can audiences expect from the tour?

I will take the audience through a range of some of the wackiest conspiracy theories out there and what I think of them.

I am pretty much a sceptic and so, for balance, I will be joined by an eminent conspiracy theorist, Dr Julian Northcote, author of the book COWS! Britain’s Secret Killers. He had a near-death experience when rambling and was trampled by a cow. Expect the unexpected.

What does the future hold?

I am developing a Trigger Happy Movie. We first started talking about a movie as soon as Trigger Happy TV ended, more than 20 years ago, but studio bosses kept asking things like, “Where’s the narrative?”.

Now you have Jacka** on their fifth film so we are giving it another go and this time it might happen.

The idea is certainly attracting a lot of interest and I am working on a TV series of The Conspiracy Tourist for the US.

■ Dom Joly The Conspiracy Tour will be in theatres from February

21. Visit domjoly.tv for ticket information. Dom Joly’s The Conspiracy Tourist: Travels Through a Strange World is published by Robinson, priced £22

Dom Joly, who has turned his book, The Conspiracy Tourist (below) into a UK tour

Dr Julian Northcote who will be appearing with Dom on the tour