DARA Ó Briain is the Voice of Reason.

Who says so? Dara Ó Briain, Irish comedian and host of Mock The Week, Stargazing Live, The Apprentice: You’re Fired!, The Panel, School Of Hard Sums, Dara Ó Briain’s Science Club, Robot Wars, Dara And Ed’s Big Adventure and Go8Bit.

The 47-year-old humorist, from Bray, County Wicklow, graduated in mathematics and theoretical physics from University College, Dublin, and will be applying both wit and formidable intellect to dismantling all manner of bogus theories at York Barbican on Saturday and Sunday on his Voice Of Reason travels.

Among myriad topics in his ninth tour show, Dara will be mulling over the rise of the nerd. "Nerds have become much cooler recently," he notes. "Thanks to the Internet, they can find each other now. It’s very positive."

The meeting of two bright sparks, Ó Briain and Professor Brian Cox, on their Stargazing Live television shows, will pop up in Dara's gigs too. "When Brian and I work together, he is the expert and I am the broadcaster. When he is talking, sometimes a producer says into my earpiece: ‘A plane is now hovering over Scandinavia with shots of the Aurora Borealis. We have to cut to that'.

"So at those moments, I have to interrupt Brian. But furious viewers then write in saying, ‘Why did you interrupt Professor Brian Cox? I was enjoying watching him!’. They genuinely think I interrupt Brian because I’m jealous of him. They imagine I’m saying, ‘Sorry to interrupt you, Brian, but it is not going to be all about you tonight. I also know things that I want to tell the audience’. Brian and I find that idea hilarious."

The "ordinariness" of Dara's daily life will come under discussion too. "If there is a theme to the show, it is that at the age of 47, I have an incredibly normal life," he says.

Ironically, then, Ó Briain has become the subject of a fake news website. "In the show, I go into the madness of this story about these things that are supposed to have happened to me, where the producers of this fake news site have filled in some details," he says.

“The Internet has become a torrent of disinformation. There was a tiny moment where we thought we could use the Internet to amplify scientific truths and have a great weapon for fighting lies. But no, that was completely wrong. What the Internet is really useful for is more lies."

This weekend, Ó Briain will be completing a hattrick of York Barbican visits, having made his debut there with Craic Dealer in October 2012 and reflected on awkward conversations and angel therapy in Crowd Tickler on his return in November 2015.

Now taking his Voice Of Reason to more than 20 countries, he outlines what he hopes audiences will take away from this highly reasoned show. "I get really enthusiastic about science-y stuff. You can see me getting giddy about space. That’s why I recently wrote a kids’ book about space [Beyond The Sky: You And The Universe], but on tour, I’m there to do funny," he says.

"This show is an evening of entertainment. It’s two hours of laughing. It’s not meant to be pedagogic. It is not meant to say, ‘You’ll be laughing, but you’ll also be learning'. Of course, if that happens, that’s grand, but first and foremost Voice of Reason is just a load of funny stuff. Journalists might write, ‘Oh, he spoke very eloquently about Ireland’, but I’m more proud of talking about a giant duck."

Dara Ó Briain: Voice Of Reason, York Barbican, Saturday and Sunday, 8pm. Tickets update: first night, sold out; second night, still available. Box office: 0844 854 2757, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office.

Charles Hutchinson