Comedy Festival 2018: David O’Doherty shows glimpses of usual brilliance in You Have To Laugh ★★★
SOME flashes of the usual brilliance but a decidedly off-year for David O’Doherty, one of the festival stalwarts.
Comedy Festival
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David O’Doherty’s longevity and consistency might make him one of the finest wines of this festival, but this year’s offering is by no means vintage.
Starting off with some promising “pre-show bonus material” about his new trousers and an obligatory ball-tampering gag, the football fanatic appears to be match-fit.
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An opening song demanding that You Have To Laugh also bodes well, encapsulating O’Doherty’s tendency to mask an occasionally bleak worldview with razor-sharp silliness and a world-weary insistence that the only way to cope with modern life’s scarier tendencies is to whip out a novelty keyboard and sing, even if you can’t.
Material about the Irish use of the word “grand”, being just famous enough to be mistakenly recognised and an epic journey to feed a change machine are delivered with customary deadpan brilliance, while a description of Brexit for the uninitiated is one of the best laughs you’re likely to find anywhere at this festival.
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However, things drift a little from there as the show loses focus, with even O’Doherty’s trademark songs failing to hit the mark despite such promising topics as a conversation with his 18-year-old self and venturing into town (gasp!) without his phone alongside some less-promising ones, such as a running commentary on two dogs in heat, which seems to be from a different show entirely.
After a retread of the “famous Davids” audience participation bit that may be familiar to some, we finish on a song called Let’s Get Our S--t Together, which by this stage seems just a little too on-the-nose.
Laughter likely but for once, not compulsory.
David O’Doherty, You Have To Laugh
Forum Theatre Upstairs, 154 Flinders St, until Apr 22.
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