David O’Doherty.
With his baseball cap and casual, easy-going demeanour, the Irish David O’Doherty rocks an overgrown child vibe. But a child who’s just had litres of red cordial and is all charged up for an hour of mischief.
O’Doherty behaves as though he’s got five tabs opened at once in his whirring brain as he jumps from one topic to another, with no real connection between them all. When not holding forth on all manner of scatalogical material, he sings (sometimes in rhymes and mostly off-key), accompanied by his dinky little keyboard. So, as he eloquently puts it, ‘blah blah blah plonk plonk plonk’.
The ability to improvise quickly is a mark of a good comic and on this night he resourcefully (a la MacGyver) asked for chewing gum from the audience for an easy fix when one of the keys on his keyboard broke. He fully admits he has it easy in the responsibility stakes and it’s just this musical instrument that he has to look after (‘I have one job!’).
O’Doherty is a bit rude and a whole lot of funny and his particular schtick is random one liners inserted in between rambling stories. Like the ode to his bicycle before being overtaken by a vaping motorised scooter.
From elbow fillers, Internet addiction, Irish history and marauding rodents, O’Doherty roams widely. Sometimes it’s just silly observations (St Patrick’s Day is the saint of ‘Strangers pissing behind your bins’) other times it’s an extended ditty, for instance, the manner in which he takes his dirty linen to be aired in the local nightclub is nothing short of inspired.
O’Doherty is not averse to using himself as the (literal) butt of his jokes either. Indeed, the final set piece hilariously recounts his accident with bleach. So funny even the emergency nurse at the hospital laughed. If you ask nicely he may even do an encore of his famous Grand Designs song.
David O’Doherty
28 March – 21 April 2019
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
