The reluctant humorist

David O'Doherty is back with his peculiar style of humor. The Irish comedian was last in Prague two years ago as part of the Fringe Festival's off-season Comedy Night series. In an interview last week with The Prague Post, he waxed rhapsodic about the city.

"I love Prague," he says. "It's even more hard-core than Dublin in the sense that it contains immense human misery. You walk up to a lovely tree or something and think, 'Oh, that's nice,' and then there's a plaque that says 12 children were hanged there in the 12th century."

A fan of frigid weather, O'Doherty was disappointed to learn that it's been unseasonably warm. "Well, I'm bundling up anyway," he declares. "I'll be the guy in too many clothes, sweating on Charles Bridge and wishing for snow."

O'Doherty's eclectic brand of stand-up is currently in high demand, and he spends the majority of his time on tour. He'll be at Divadlo Na Prádle for one night only, so advance tickets are a must.

The comedian combines jokes, storytelling and music for his ever-evolving act. "Actually," he explains,

" 'act' is the wrong word. I just talk about my life in excessive detail and sing songs and talk to people in the audience. It's always informed by what's been happening in my life, so you'll probably get something from the flight over or something like that."

Asked to describe his style in greater detail, he replies, "It's like walking down a flight of stairs in the dark, and you miss the last step and just sort of flail forward. Only it's like that for two hours."

Regarding the musical element, he's reticent at first. "I can't really sing or play anything," he insists, which may explain his fondness for low-tech '80s keyboards. "The songs are stripped to their core. I used to want to be a jazz musician, like my father, but he heard me practicing one day and told me I couldn't polish a turd."

O'Doherty resists attempts to categorize the type of music he favors for his performance. Pressed to identify a genre, or genres, that would best describe what he does, he counters enigmatically but in the most matter-of-fact tone, "It's very low-key musical whimsy."

As the cover photo suggests, O'Doherty is also fond of off-the-wall costuming - and equally enigmatic about what to expect when he takes the stage in Prague next week. Will he be in costume? "Yes," he states categorically, "I'll be dressed as myself."

The cryptic humorist may be his own worst publicist, downplaying expectations for his performance. "I'm a slow starter and not a big finisher," he proclaims in a seamless deadpan. "But there will be some good stuff somewhere in the middle there."

James Walling can be reached at
jwalling@praguepost.com