I met Dan when we were at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2022 and I went to his show 'Patience Zero'. The description of his show was:
'Dan's always wanted to be a father. But now he and his wife are going through constant loss and IVF, he starts to ask the question: is he good enough? But in a year with a serious accident, an NHS-induced bad K-trip, a letter warning of impending death and, oh, aliens, he begins to wonder - is the universe telling him no? It's a comedy. Somewhere between stand-up and theatre, this show explores how far you will go for family.' and was given a 4/5 star review by Chortle who said, 'I love this genre of thoughtful, emotionally truthful shows that come from unexpected directions. They always deserve a bigger audiences, and punters lucky enough to find these little gems will remember them long after the bigger, later, louder balls-out comedy shows have blurred into one.'
I was interested in having Dan speak on the podcast because it is rare to find places where men share about this experience. In this episode I speak to Dan about writing his story as a comedy show; how he and his wife dealt with miscarriage and loss and what impact his show had on other people.
Helpful resources;
www.tommys.org
www.sands.org.uk
https://babyloss-awareness.org/organisations/
https://themuttonclub.com/childless-not-by-choice-through-grief-to-acceptance/
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The Therapeutic Poet in conversation with Dan Cardwell about miscarriage.