Bernard O'Shea - Do Not Adjust Your Mind, Reality is at Fault

Bernard O’Shea, the ginger haired, self-styled “psycho-puppy killer” and reluctant Irish comedian, has frequently been touted as something of an emerging talent, and at times during this display it is easy to see why.

However, for the first ten minutes of O’Shea’s set, the most powerful sensation you’re likely to feel is one of déjà vu. Can there be a man or woman alive in the English-speaking world who has not heard a variant on the “isn’t Ireland a funny little country” theme? Is there anyone left alive that can genuinely call material on the absurdity of parochial life original? Is it really still funny to tell jokes about climate change allowing us to enjoy Mediterranean summers? So far, so uninspiring.

Fortunately things pick up, and quickly. Behind an unoriginal start follows some promising, if not fully-developed, material on his own philosophical outlook that borrows heavily from the works of Foucault and his 4 year-old niece, Annie. Based around the key concept that he, his niece and his audience “didn’t agree to any of this,” O’Shea takes the next few minutes to analyse modern life and its absurdities, and sets up several laugh-out-loud moments for the rest of the set.

The pinnacle of the evening comes towards the end, when tales of sexual deviance, “practical love songs”, scarves and airports build to a fabulous crescendo.

With a couple of musical numbers thrown in for good measure, O’Shea serves up a solid, if improvable, fifty minutes of comedy.