A crafted, conscientious comedic fix

David O’Doherty Will Try to Fix Everything

Project Arts Centre

****

Spoiler alert: David O’Doherty does not fix the entire world with this latest show, and it does not, as he outlines in his opening salvo, turn into the greatest thing you’ve ever seen. What he does provide is a cracking 70-odd minutes of inventive comedy that show how far he’s come as a performer and a writer, with just a child’s novelty keyboard for company.

O'Doherty plays around familiar themes with some of his verbal riffs and comedic songs, but he brings originality into the mix and the punchlines are unpredictable. He unloads his lo-fi exasperation on audience members who are fiddling with their phones (and no, they still don't stop); celebrity news articles get a dressing down; Lance Armstrong come in for a hammering, for essentially ruining everything; and he also stitches a brilliant, recurring racist reference throughout (no he's not a racist, and yes you have to hear it in context).

As ever, his material and demeanour is laced with pathos and humility, and O’Doherty is frequently the butt of his own carefully crafted jokes as his well-earned cynicism does battle with his irrepressible optimism. Most men in the room will recognise themselves in his stories, and if the frequent refrains of “Awwww” are anything to go by, most women simply want to take him home and mind him.

Until Sept 21