The decision to have David O’Doherty close the comedy tent on Saturday night was an interesting one. While he is well known to comedy fans and well loved too he certainly doesn’t have the TV profile of Sara Pascoe or Marcus Brigstocke. There was a definite thinning out in the arena before his set, but those that drifted away missed something special.
O’Doherty might be known for his lo-fi whimsy, but he packs a meaty punch too these days. After a series of killer one-liners seated at his tinny keyboard he stood up and force-fed the audience some terrifically funny longer but totally accessible stories.
Following something of a theme of the weekend – Russell Kane and Sara Pascoe also had gags about finding satisfaction in life - O’Doherty talked at length about his quest for happiness and how he couldn’t believe how lucky he was to be doing a job like this despite all its faults. Don’t look over the rainbow, he suggested, because it might be just as shit over there and you may not even be able to see the rainbow.
The baseball capped comic thought the secret of happiness might be buying the right implement to cut his pizza with. When that didn’t work out he aimed a little higher and thought the answer might be a girlfriend, teeing up a series of neat romance-related quips
He did not shy away from the bleakness of life, reflecting on how betting is made out to be glamorous with adverts inviting people to have a flutter, except that when you look inside a betting shop “these dudes are not fluttering”.
A poignant streak ran through his set too, with references to his elderly neighbour Mr O’Neill, who only has to pop out for his daily sausages on his bicycle to get O’Doherty welling up. It is hard to know how much truth there is in these yarns, but his story about a series of coincidences during a hotel stay is so far-fetched it must be true.
For a whimsical comedian he can get very angry too, particularly on the subject of trying to get his broadband up and running. He ended up being told to "blow into the internet". I doubt if that worked but those lucky fans that saw his Latitude set were certainly blown away.
