DO’D Has a key to fix everything

David O’Doherty is a comedian, an author, the man behind a top 30 hit (Orange) in the Irish charts and is rarely seenon stage withouta trusty three-foot electronic keyboard. Ahead of bringing his new show to Derry this weekend, the Dubliner talks to Brian Campbell

DAVID O’DOherty often gets mistaken for actor Chris O’Dowd, he has joked that he’s the child of Shannon and Pete Doherty and says his new look is ‘Jaws era Steven Spielberg’ — welcome to the world of DO’D.

One of Ireland’s finest stand-up comedians, O’Doherty has supported the likes of Tommy Tiernan, rich hall and Demetri Martin on tour and has had equally brilliant comics (among them Maeve Higgins, Chris Kent and Tony Law) open for him. having won the top comedy prize in Edinburgh in 2008, the Dubliner has been gigging since the late nineties and – no stranger to northern venues – he brings his new show to Derry this weekend and to Belfast in March.

Are you getting reading for a busy year of touring now? yeah, i’m touring now until May. it starts in Castleblayney and Derry and ends in May in Sydney. i started working on this show last February and it was already a different show by the time i got to edinburgh last summer. then i did a run in Dublin over Christmas and it’s changed into something else, so i’m going to let it keep changing. Somebody like Dylan Moran goes out with an actual full show and he doesn’t tweak it, but i get bored and there’s too much fun to be had in messing with it. it just starts to regenerate itself.

What made you call the show David O’Doherty Will Try To Fix Everything?

When you do edinburgh they always ask you in March for the title of the show you haven’t written yet. My previous show was silly and funny but it was a bit sad because it was about being depressed and trying to get over a break-up. So at the start

this show, very generally, it was about me wanting to fix everything that’s wrong in the world. the title tends to come the night before the deadline. there have been a few panic-y ones – i’m not sure if i’m really proud of the title Somewhere Over the David O’Doherty, but i did like Let’s David O’Doherty.

Part of the show has you lamenting the fact that Lance Armstrong did turn out to be a drugs cheat in the end.

Cycling was my sport and i knew cycling had a bit of a drug problem, but Lance Armstrong came along with his cancer charity and it was just the fact that i’d defended him SO much. it has happened a lot in irish politics too, but you just don’t want it all to turn your heart to stone; that’s what i’m trying to say with this show. times are hard, but there are still people trying and there’s goodness to be had.

And you have said that you originally wanted this show to be your ‘ticket to the big time’ show that would see you start to play arenas.

It was. I wanted to do proper short jokes, which is what i did when i started off doing comedy. So that’s what it started off as, but then things happen in your life that are funnier and more interesting than those jokes and so it started to change. you can try and pretend to be an arena comedian with one of those telemarketing headset mics, but it’s hard to get away from your innate style of doing comedy. So i’m still a scruffy man holding a microphone and playing a s**t keyboard.