David O'Doherty is Looking Up

Irish purveyor of lo-fi music and playful laughs David O’Doherty constantly finds himself having to correct people who, upon discovering what he does for a living, mistake him for Bridesmaids star Chris O’Dowd. But in the context of the Fringe, the cap-wearing 35-year-old Dubliner in the gold cape is a sell-out sensation who can barely put a little toe wrong.

If this show seems to feature quite a lot of recycled material, it can be excused by the unfortunate run of ill health O’Doherty has endured over the last few months, worst of which was a several-week-long spell spent barely off or over (sometimes both at once) the toilet with a bacterial stomach infection.

No matter – it’s little cause for complaint to hear repeat airings of the brilliant ‘Party at My House’, or angry diatribe ‘My Beefs’, a list of gripes updated for 2011 to target adverts for Boots’ summer cosmetic range and Travelodge, whose logo O’Doherty reckons should be more accurately changed to a lonely businessman masturbating.

A slide show featuring excerpts from his forthcoming book 100 Facts About Sharks is a feast of childlike, wide-eyed weirdness, while his half-hour closing spiel taking in everything from working as a spilled-sausages cleaner in a Cologne supermarket to being mugged by, then befriending, Spanish terrorists is a masterpiece of freewheeling whimsy. Don’t come to his show expecting belly-laughs galore – just a non-stop feel-good glow courtesy of one of the most loveable and natural funny men in the business.