MAKE your own luck.

That is Dave Johns’ advice to anyone in the creative industries after reinventing himself as film star at the age of 62.

Dave had previously made a name for himself as a stand-up comic with almost 30 years’ experience on the circuit.

But his life changed pretty much overnight when celebrated filmmaker Ken Loach handed him the lead part in the multi award-winning I, Daniel Blake.

That decision to audition for an acclaimed director – despite having no experience as a film actor – has come to be the defining moment in Dave’s career.

But it is just one of many times Dave has reinvented himself.

The Geordie started out as a bricklayer before working backstage at the Tyne Theatre and Opera House.

He got a taste for performing arts on the theatre’s fly floor where he controlled moving parts of the set during productions.

Then a trip to London in 1988 changed Dave’s whole outlook.

He said: “I went down to the Comedy Store. I saw a stand-up show and I thought it would be excellent if there was somewhere like that in Newcastle.

“I came back up and I remembered there was a venue that the theatre ran. At the time it was being used as a bistro and it wasn’t doing very well.

“So I asked if I could use it to start a comedy club. They said ‘Yeah sure – but we’re not giving you any money for it’.

“I said: ‘I’ll sort out all the fees and you can take the bar’ and that became the Comedy Café in Newcastle.”

Dave hosted the comedy shows and gradually built up his confidence and his own act. He was 34 when he did his first show.

“I gave Ross Noble his first gigs there when he was a 15-year-old kid,” he added.

“All the big names used to play there like Eddie Izzard, Frank Skinner Jo Brand, Steve Coogan and Harry Hill.

“We all started off together and that’s how I know most of the big acts.

“That’s how I got into comedy by hosting their shows basically. That’s the thing about stand-up. You learn on the job and you can either do it or you can’t.

“I started to get better and I started to get work in London and all over the country.

“We used to do little pub gigs around the country. I remember me, Alan Davies and Lee Evans driving around Birmingham trying to find somewhere to park for one of our gigs in the early 90s.”

Dave then went back to his theatre roots and reinvented himself as a stage writer when he adapted Stephen King’s The Shawshank Redemption with Owen O’Neill, which played the West End in 2009.

It was part of a project to create a series of comedian-led productions for Edinburgh Festival. Other plays included Twelve Angry Men, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and The Odd Couple.

Dave said: “We got in touch with Stephen King’s lawyers and asked if the rights available to the short story and lo and behold they were.

“The thing about anything like this is that you’ve got to create your own work.

“You’ve got to bring something to the table.

‘I had Casey Affleck standing with his BAFTA in his hand saying: ‘I thought you were brilliant in that film’

Dave Johns

“It’s no use being a comedian or an actor and saying: ‘I never get any work. I don’t get any interesting stuff’.

“If that’s the case you’ve got to create it.”

That philosophy paid off because it was through Twelve Angry Men that Dave met Ken Loach, whose distinguished back catalogue includes the classic film, Kes.

Dave added: “The producer of Twelve Angry Men told me that Ken Loach was looking for a guy my age for a new film he was making.

“I went and did three auditions for him and things where we did improvisation.

“After the third one he offered me the part which I was absolutely gobsmacked to get. It changed my life.”

I, Daniel Blake is about a man who is denied benefits despite his doctor finding him unfit to work.

The moving film became Loach’s biggest success at the box office and sparked debate in the country about politics, people in need and the failures of the welfare system.

Dave, who has appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks and 8 Out of 10 Cats, said: “How the film has been taken to the public’s heart is amazing.

“It’s all over the world. People just love the honesty and the truth of the film.

“I, Daniel Blake was such a hit. It won the BAFTA, it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes so I’ve set the bar quite high with my first film!

“But at the grand old age of 62 I’m starting a film career and I won the Empire magazine film award for best newcomer this year.”

Dave has not forgotten his stand-up roots though and, in fact, his latest tour is helping him make sense of this strange but exciting position he has found himself in.

He is performing two sold out shows in the Warrington area on Thursday, as part of a warm up for Edinburgh Festival.

That includes a show at Lymm Hotel for Lymm Festival and Stockton Heath Festival performance at the Slug and Lettuce.

Dave added: “The show I’m doing in Warrington is a preview for the Edinburgh show I’m doing called I, Fillum Star.

“It’s about my journey from stand-up comic to starting to make films and all the crazy things that have happened to me since I, Daniel Blake.

“I’m back to my roots as I haven’t done a stand-up solo Edinburgh show for 18 years.”

So how has life changed for Dave?

He said: “I get stopped in the street all the time. People either look at me and go: ‘Did you deliver my mum’s fridge?’

“Or they know who I am. But people always stare at me and think: ‘Do I know you?’

“The BAFTAs was crazy. Nicole Kidman came up to me and said: ‘I took my mum to see I, Daniel Blake and we were both in tears’.

“Then I had Casey Affleck standing with his BAFTA in his hand saying: ‘I thought you were brilliant in that film’.

“You just think wow. It just knocks you out when you’ve got all these actors who you’ve known for years coming up to you and praising your performance.

“When I was at Cannes I also met Woody Allen in a lift.

“That was the most bizarre thing that has ever happened to me

“I walked into the lift in my dinner jacket and Woody Allen was there in his dinner jacket.

“We just nodded and he said: ‘What floor’ and I said: ‘The fifth’ and that was it…”

  • Dave Johns is doing a show at Lymm Hotel on Thursday for Lymm Festival. He is also performing at the Slug and Lettuce on the same night for Stockton Heath Festival. Tickets have sold out. Email hello@stocktonheathfestival.co.uk or secretary@lymmfestival.org.uk to enquire about returns