Adding up the laughs

For the past few weeks, Dara O Briain and his comedy chums have been locked away at a secret location in training for this year's Edinburgh Festival. Breakfasting on deep-fried Doner Kebabs, they then do an intensive six-hour tequila slamming session before breaking up into groups for counselling sessions on how to deal with bad reviews. "It's going well so far," says O Briain, towelling himself down after another day's exertion. "One of the big problems this year, though, is the pressure we're under to perform - two out of the last three Perrier awards have gone to Irish acts so there is an expectation there."

If there are to be any awards thrown in the general Team Ireland direction this year, the 27-year-old O Briain from the comedy hothouse of Bray, Co Wicklow, should be there or thereabouts. Only a full-time stand-up for the past three years, his slicker than slick urbane observations and snappy one-liners have made him one of the most popular and sought-after comics in the country - and the exposure he gets as a team captain on Network 2's Don't Feed The Gondolas has helped his cause no end. "To be honest, I'm actually dreading going over this year," he says of his upcoming month at the biggest comedy festival in the world. "Last year it was different because I was sharing a show with another Irish comic, John Henderson, and as such I was `out of competition', but this year I've got my own show - with Deirdre O'Kane as a special guest - so there's no escaping the critical attention."

It's not just the rigours of performing nightly alongside some of the biggest names in the business that worries him as much as the simple fact that you have to be on the top of your game, day in and day out, for a month. "Edinburgh is a massive trade fair for comedians and it's where you get spotted by television people for sit-coms and all manner of things. You never know what night the people from Channel 4, the BBC or even Channel 5 are going to be in at your show, so you have to keep a certain standard going all the time. Still, though, it's a great festival and a very enjoyable month once you're over the nerves."

Having just signed up to appear in Gondolas for another year, O Briain won't necessarily be looking out for television work abroad but he still feels that he needs to be in Edinburgh for professional reasons - "I suppose there is the thing that, as a comic, if you're not there, then there's something wrong. But the main reason for me going over is to take on a new challenge and play to new audiences. It's an incredibly good discipline to do a show for 28 nights in a row to festival audiences - it's like doing a theatre run. And, for someone who's used to gigging in Ireland, it forces me to really go through my material and somehow make it more general and less full of Irish references."

Has he any coping strategies lined up for the notorious drinkathon that is the Fringe? "Everyone goes over saying I'm going to pace myself this year and get home at a reasonable time. But we're all still out at four in the morning. What I find is, even if I do go home early, I'm so wired up from the show and the whole festival experience that I can't sleep - so I may as well be out anyway. Some nights, though, are worse than others. Last year I remember my flatmate coming into the kitchen at three in the afternoon and asking me what time I got home at last night, and me replying `five minutes ago'. You do what you can, but it ain't easy."

Somewhat of an anomaly among comedians, O Briain is, by training, a mathematical scientist, courtesy of a degree from UCD - he's also a fluent Irish speaker thanks to his schooling at Colaiste Eoin in Booterstown. "I suppose mathematical science is as good a background as any for stand-up, but in reality, while at college, I was involved in debating with the L&H Society, and the whole notion of standing up in front of people trying to make them laugh started there. I also edited a newspaper at college and was going to be a journalist. But after college I hassled RTE for work and they eventually gave me a job presenting a bi-lingual children's programme called Echo Island, which was a great training."

He couldn't keep away from comedy, though, and he would regularly make forays into Dublin's Comedy Cellar club to get up and do a few routines. "I'm very much part of the phase two of Irish comedy development. I got into it just as it was taking off and everyone around me seemed to be winning awards and getting sit-coms. I built up my material by gigging all around Ireland, but especially in Cork and at the Laughter Lounge in Dublin."

O Briain's trademark motor-mouth material is at times quite inspired. He has an admirable gags-per-words ratio and, unlike a lot of the newer, surreal-edged comics, he's a dab hand at mordant contemporary commentary. Quite parochial in his concerns (when playing in Ireland), he's as happy deconstructing the Late Late Show toy show special as he is parodying GAA cup-winning speeches. "A lot of people mention that my material is very Irish-based," he acknowledges, "but I don't really see that as a problem. I know what I would have to do if I moved onto the British circuit, but I have no real desire to do that at the moment. Besides, doing Edinburgh forces me to `de-Irish' a lot of my routines so I can perform them to British and American punters."

In Ireland, thanks to his television work, he remains one of the biggest draws on the circuit: "I'm really glad at how working on Gondolas has helped my profile and I'm always amazed at how, once you get outside the Pale, people tend to be congratulatory, for the most part. You do get the odd incident, though, when you're walking down Grafton Street and someone shouts out `there's that bloke from the telly who's thinks he's funny' - except in vernacular. But that's only to be expected. We're looking forward to bringing it back for the fourth series and we've fiddled around with the format this time so it will be a very different show."

Any further ambitions in RTE land? "It's a very different place now to the one I first started working in. Back then, I think the average age was 43 and now there's loads of younger people around the place. I'd like to get a bit more experience before I even thought about doing some more television work. Anyway, at the moment, I've my hands full with comedy work and really enjoying it. Especially as I shouldn't be doing this at all - given my education, I really should be a teacher in Carlow IT or somewhere, teaching 1st years how to differentiate . . ."

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival begins tomorrow and runs until August 30th. Dara O Briain will be performing nightly at the Gilded Balloon Theatre (9 p.m.). Other Irish acts at this year's festival include Jason Byrne; Joe Rooney and Patrick McDonnell in a show called Further Ted; Eddie Bannon in a new one-man show; Brendan Burke; Colin Murphy; The Nualas; Kevin Hayes; Ed Byrne and Dylan Moran.

PS: If you're a betting person, Brian Boyd's hot tip for this year's Perrier award, and at this early stage at very good odds, is British act Simon Munnery.