The Stage

Dara O’Briain

Published Monday 20 September 2010 at 11:21 by Julian Hall

As the permanent host of the successful panel show Mock The Week, Irishman Dara O’Briain is one of the obvious shorthands for British comedy. Though this might be considered a burden in terms of audience expectation O’Briain performs with a zeal (one that can morph into camp exuberance at times as well as a superfast delivery speed) that suggests there is no way he would rather be in a TV studio than a theatre.

Dara O'Briain at Hammersmith Apollo

Working his crowd is a duty O’Briain takes particularly seriously, as if he is conducting anthropological research. Initially I felt tonight that he had scant regard for the professions of his punters, suggesting they bid up their careers to something more interesting than they actually were, but he confounds me on this by weaving a closing tapestry around their contributions.

Of more interest, however, were his set pieces. A routine about exercising to get his cholesterol down could have come right out of the book of that much-maligned shorthand for British comedy, Michael McIntyre. Meanwhile, his slant on the ante-natal classes taken by him and his wife shows off a more knowing approach.

The routine that is then born out of this one is an absorbing one about videogames being the only demanding art form. Videogames are the one source of entertainment he can still get excited about, it seems, because his appreciation of so many other distractions is stunted by the fact there is too much “stuff” on offer.

The question is thus begged; can you get too much of a good thing? Probably. Tonight, however, with O’Briain very much in stride in the second half, his punters seem partial to excess.