Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook chatted happily about handling his alcohol habit this week, telling the Irish Independent he’s successfully overcome his fear of performing without any booze.

“The idea of doing it without drink was like ‘oh no . . . what if you’re not in the mood. What happens if you don’t feel like Mr Saturday night’,” he told the Independent, “But no, it was fine. I receive such an adrenaline shock from the crowd that I’ve found I can actually do it without drinking.”

The uber-popular superstar DJ checked into rehab in March some four years after he admitted in an interview to needing alcohol to perform on stage.

“Fatboy Slim is my alter ego – he’s confident, a bit of a show-off, it takes me until midnight to psych myself into him,” he said in 2005, “The difference between me and him is a bad Hawaiian shirt and half a bottle of vodka. I’ve tried going on stage sober and it wasn’t much fun.” (Daily Mail)

His discovery of the transformative qualities of crowd adrenalin matched the recollections of 50 something US comedian Ruby Wax who, chatting to the Guardian, recalled the euphoria she felt when her career took off as a stand-up comedian in the 80s.

“I loved the attention, the first hit of VIP-ness – and then you have to keep upping the dose, because it’s a drug,” she suggested, “Soon an audience of 500 people isn’t enough, it has to be 2,000 people in a theatre. You’re addicted.”

“I know it’s a drug,” she added, on the experience of being adored on stage, “It gives you dopamine.”

Jonty Skrufff 

source: Jonty Scrufff’s blog