David O’Doherty gig preview (From York Press)

David O’Doherty gig preview

7:00am Friday 22nd January 2010 in

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THE whiter the bread, the quicker you’re dead, the old saying goes.

David O’Doherty must have been taking note since York Twenty4Seven’s previous call to the Irish comedian interrupted his sandwich-making routine before that day’s five-a-side football exertions.

“Times have changed. I’m trying not to eat so much bread. Well, white bread, because it destroys your mind. It makes me kind of sleepy,” he says.

Are you sure, David? “It’s probably psychological, but I’m trying to reject the sandwich – which is a serious thing – and drink more soup.

“There’s a great legacy here in Ireland of drinking soup…but it’s quite a sensitive issue, going back to the time of the Irish potato famine.”

We digress. A very much awake David is on the phone from Dublin to discuss David O’Doh-Party, his new touring show, which is destined for the Hyena Lounge Comedy club in York on Sunday night.

“It’s a terrible pun. It’s like ‘party’ with David O’Doherty in it,” he says, almost apologetically. “I’ve always liked a terrible pun…but it hasn’t been entirely successful because people have no idea what it’s about, which I think is fine because they don’t know what to expect.”

David thrives on such unpredictability: his stumbling comedy has been compared to going down a flight of stairs in the dark, thinking two steps are left, but there turns out to be only one. “The beauty of stand-up comedy is that it’s not ballet and it’s not theatre, and people can interject and take part, so it’s closer to a party than it is to opera…and I like to think to think that blokes might meet girls at my gigs. I always dream that,” he says.

“I’ve always thought going to a comedy gig is a good way to start a relationship – but if it’s a bad show, at least you can discuss it afterwards.”

Amid the uncertainty of the precise nature of a David O’Doherty party night, one ingredient is guaranteed. David will be playing one of his cast-off Eighties’ electronic organs, the Yamaha Portasound PSS260 model that ceased production in 1987 but still finds favour with yer man Doherty. “Personally I’ve never really approved of musical expertise being important to a comedy song,” he says.

“With a tiny keyboard, you’re reduced to the bare minimum and so a song sinks or swims by how funny it is, and that’s how it should be, I think.”

The David O’Doh-Party night has expanded from a tight hour at last summer’s Edinburgh Fringe to double that length. “I’ve about two hours of new stuff in my head and six new songs, and also there’s an element of panda facts in the show,” he says.

Ah yes, David O’Doherty’s panda facts, or more truthfully made-up panda facts, well, fantastical panda lies in fact, as published in the book 100 Facts About Pandas, co-written with Mike Ahern and Claudia O’Doherty for publication last October by Random House.

“The book is officially a best seller,” says David, proudly. “It’s sold out all the copies but they’re doing another lot this month.

“The book is so fancy! The reason we went to this publisher is that they allowed us to make it gold embossed with lots of colour and we really took a lot of care over it – so they’re very angry about having to do another print run.”

He is only joking when he says that, but he is serious in aiming to seduce his entire audience each night with one particular song. How does he know when this seduction is complete? “I can just tell!” he says.

“I tried to write a sing, a serenade, and traditionally songs of the serenading variety focus one person – usually a lady – but here I try something that involves me doing ‘call and response’ with audience members and then I build the song there and then.

“I might pretend I heard something and just make it up – and when I was in the Isle of Man I called everyone ‘Douglas’ so I could include them all.”

Comedy comes naturally to David, less so his musical skills. “I am a failure in that I wanted to be a jazz musician. My father [Jim Doherty, ‘he doesn’t use the ‘O’] is a piano player and he did The Music Of Hoagy Carmichael – Moon River, Skylark – at National Concert Hall in Dublin the other night.

“He taught me some piano but he has some difficulty in teaching because playing is so innate to him, especially as he’s a jazz musician and I don’t have the ear you need to be a jazz musician.”

Nevertheless there are similarities between jazz and stand-up: the risk-taking, the improvisation, the spur of the moment. “My dad was always a big comedy fan, like the Goons and Lenny Bruce and a lot of comedians who played jazz clubs in the Sixties…he’s a pretty hip guy. The thing I grew up with was a disdain for showbiz, that flashy thing of bow ties and dinner jackets, whereas Dad and his band would just discuss on the night what they would play.

“Jazz is really about testing yourself: there’d be five people there, three of them not paying any attention, and afterwards dad would say ‘I really enjoyed that gig’” says David.

“If you throw the balls up in the air and see how they land, that’s what you want in comedy: an element of spontaneity and being different each show – and I would stop doing it if it got to be me just repeating myself each night.”

There is no danger of that. David O’Doherty’s mind is always on the move. He and his book co-conspirators are already planning a sequel to their panda tome. “We’re going to do 100 Facts About Sharks as people are obsessed with them,” he says. “With pandas, it’s about being cute but with sharks, I think it’s all about our fear.”

Did you know?

David O’Doherty has written a children’s book and two plays, one for children and one for grown-ups. The adult one, Saddled, is the only piece of theatre ever to feature the live repair of audience members’ bicycles. “I’d really love to do a tour but it’s tricky having people take their damaged bikes into a theatre,” he says.

David O’Doherty plays the Hyena Lounge Comedy Club, The Basement, City Screen, York, on Sunday at 7.30pm. Doors open at 7pm; tickets £10, concessions £8, on 0871 704 2054. Further dates: The Library, Leeds, tomorrow, 8pm, 0113 244 0794, and Harrogate Theatre on Monday, 8pm, 01423 502116.