David O'Doherty Review

Ever since Phil Nichol took the If.comedy award in 2006, winning the unofficial Oscar of comedy has become something of a mixed blessing. Of course, receiving the now rebranded Edinburgh Comedy Award instantly propels today’s comic to the summit of the industry. International invitations become de rigueur and—for a year at least—your name is spoken with reverence by peers and critics alike.

But then comes the Edinburgh follow-up show. To say expectations are high is to grossly understate the near-impossibility of repeating what may well turn out to be your life’s best work. Last year, 2007's winner Brendon Burns readily admitted that his '08 show could not reach the preceding year’s heights - and critics largely agreed. Of course, the crowds are larger and doing a Fringe run may actually—finally—make financial sense, but the trade off is that, waiting in the wings, poisoned pens sharpened, sit a cackle of obnoxious hacks desperate to knock you off your pedestal.

And already, David O’Doherty has felt the reviewer’s sting. He opens his set with a gentle rant about two such unsavoury write-ups, albeit mocking one mercilessly for its ridiculous mixing of metaphors. But the other, in which his show is criticised for being largely directionless, passes with tellingly little comment.

O’Doherty is obviously aware of the hype that surrounds David O’Doh-party and sets about trying—perhaps only half-jokingly—to lower expectations through a trademark lo-fi comedy song. It’s an endearing move, but it does little to abate the increasing excitement among the capacity crowd, who’ve all come to see a comedy alchemist perform his magic. “He won the award last year, he must be good,” someone a row back reassures her partner.

But O’Doherty isn’t that sort of comedian, and hype is in a lot of ways anathema to what he does. He’s not a bombastic comic. His is a deliberately low-key, endearingly gentle brand of humour; it’s quirky, observational and demands affection and patience from its audience. But tonight O’Doherty seems compromised by expectations: a fair amount of trademark quirkyness has given way to more bog-standard, touring comedian fare. The Travelodge and Ryanair get a bashing and the biggest cheer of the night is for a rather staid remark about Twitter.

‘Selling out’ is by no means the right term, but much of tonight’s material feels like its been incorporated to please the “bandwagon jumpers,” as Brendon Burns called his new-found following. And this is not what David O’Doherty is about. This is a certainly not a poor show: there are laughs to be had for sure. But for the first time in many years, David O’Doherty’s show cannot, in good faith, be praised gushingly.