We Are All In The Gutter, But Some Of Us Are Looking At David O’Doherty

David O’Doherty is no stranger to comedy fans but it’s been a while since he’s toured a new stage show. You wouldn’t know it watching We Are All In The Gutter, But Some Of Us Are Looking At David O’Doherty. He’s totally at home on stage and while he’s still singing songs from 1986 on his keyboard and telling weird stories, they’re brilliant and more hilarious than ever.

With time some comedians loose relevance but with others the increased perspective and life experience make everything they say more cutting and more brutal. David O’Doherty is very much the latter and like a craftsmen fully aware of his skills seems to relish sending his audience into paralysing fits of laughter. His material is tight, his delivery flawless and from the moment he steps on stage he’s in control. That’s not to say that his natural awkwardness has been subsumed into a joke making machine of Germanic efficiency; rather, he has the confidence to be completely and honestly himself.

His songs and stories cover everything from the Irish referendum on marriage equality to the trauma’s of childhood and the realities of getting older. He’s happy to wonder off on a tangent but always manages to return to exactly where he needs to and artfully runs a consistent narrative thread throughout, with tightly structured callbacks. We all know it, when a comedian casually drops a reference to something they were going on about early in the show, a subtle in-joke, whose foundations need to be carefully laid. Like a well-travelled Lothario, O’Doherty makes you feel as if this is all just for you.

We Are All In The Gutter, But Some Of Us Are Looking At David O’Doherty is so good that you don’t want it to end and when it does you feel as if you have to re-enter a darker more miserable outside world. You do with a smile on your face, all cynicism and despair temporarily laughed out of your body.

5 out of 5 stars