Review: David O’Doherty, Hyena Lounge Comedy Club, Sunday (From York Press)

Review: David O’Doherty, Hyena Lounge Comedy Club, Sunday

9:31am Tuesday 26th January 2010 in

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DAVID O’Doherty is funny and you can take that any way you like.

He is probably one of the funniest Irishmen you have never heard of, and he is a little strange, too, but in the winning way of a messy-haired, boy-man charmer.

As an introduction on Sunday, he helpfully pointed out that in the morning we wouldn’t remember any of what we were about to receive, because he doesn’t deal in jokes or anything easy to remember.

This turns out to be pretty accurate, for O’Doherty is a comedian who likes to shamble, a whimsical stand-up armed with a toy-keyboard, assorted circular tales about why life is mostly rubbish, but sometimes isn’t, and a handful of amusing songs on which he accompanies himself in plinkety-plonk style.

He takes weary delight in his own under-achievement, follows assorted meandering tales to their shaggy conclusion, and relays a brilliant essay in anger at inanimate objects when recalling his battles with a lap-top computer’s internet connector.

The songs work well, especially an encore about the dangers of accidentally sending abusive texts to the friend who has just been abused, and a musical litany of the mundane things that can make us happy, called Everything Isn’t S***. Well, this evening certainly wasn’t, for O’Doherty – who describes himself as a ‘flaneur’ – is very easy to like, and his joke-free routine – one did slip in there somewhere, but its passage tickled few ribs – is memorably daft and delightful.