David O'Doherty: Big Time

Whew, that was close. It got a bit dicey there, what with Brexit and Trump and the feeling that we’re all doomed and deserve it, but now David O’Doherty has decided to fix absolutely everything with his latest batch of silly songs.

It’s certainly a good time for him. Filling one of the biggest, fanciest Fringe venues on a weekday, he points out that at least he has made bank. Also, the image of a large Irish man balancing a tiny keyboard on his knee only gets more hysterical as the stage gets larger. 

Of course to fix everything he has to dig into surprisingly dark territory, from broken marriages to product placement to an alternate reality where he is an online troll. But it’s hard to get too dystopian when it’s all filtered through a battery-powered Casio. 

O’Doherty won the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2008, and it’s amazing how his act has simply never, ever stopped being funny. His noodling tunes and lunkheaded rhymes hit the same spot they always have—not quite surreal, not quite observational; not stupid but hardly clever—and while he is determinedly unglamorous and anti-showbiz, there’s a rhythm that builds up without you noticing. By the end, every line hits like a showstopper.

Perhaps this is O’Doherty playing it safe, the equivalent of one of his keyboard’s presets. But when it’s this well done it’s hard to complain, delivering for fans and newcomers alike. Big Time will make you laugh, but it isn’t going to save the world. For that you need Bob Geldof.