CPI Archive 2009: David O’Doherty returns West as one of the hottest properties in world comedy. Andrew Hamilton chats to the if.comedy award winner about his love hate relationship with the City of the Tribes.
Before they “got” David O’Doherty in the big comedy halls of Edinburgh, Melbourne and Montreal - the diminutive Dub was already at home in the west of Ireland. Maybe it’s something to do with the salty air coming in off the Atlantic - or more likely the higher concentration of fortified tonic wine in the drinking water - but O’Doherty has always found a welcoming home on the stages of the west. Well, almost always. It’s true that Galway was the site of O’Doherty’s first headline gig. It was also his destination (albeit, he never actually got there) for his first appearance on our TV screens as a very amateur cyclist trying to circumnavigate the N6. But Galway was also the location when a very young David O’Doherty first died on a stage - an experience which gave him more than you might expect. “One of my headlines was in Galway and it has always been special because of that but if was also where I had one of my first ever gigs outside of Dublin, back in the really early days. I played in the old Comedy Club in the GPO in Galway and I died on my ass so, so badly. If we are talking about the glory moment when it all goes well, there were also moments of total, total darkness - sitting in the Imperial Hotel thinking ‘what the hell am I doing’. So really early on Galway was burned into my consciousness. I don’t know did I say to myself that night that one day I would be back and not die on my ass but I’ve always enjoyed going back ever since. I think at a time around 2002 and 2003 when people weren’t really getting me in other parts of the country, people were getting me in Galway.”
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