When Irish eyes are smiling (From News Shopper)

When Irish eyes are smiling

3:11pm Friday 22nd September 2006

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With his UK tour heading to Dartford, top comic Dara O'Briain talks to James Rampton.

At the age of just 33, Dara O'Briain is already building up an enviable reputation as one of the funniest men on TV. The host of BBC2's topical panel game, Mock the Week, he has also made memorable appearances on Have I Got News For You, Three Men in a Boat, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, The Last Laugh, QI, and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

"Misery loves company, particularly if misery can sell tickets to company.”

Dara O'Briain

But now Dara is returning to his first love: stand-up comedy. The Irish comic says nothing beats the buzz of performing in front of a live audience.

We meet in the bar of the Soho Hotel, a highly trendy venue where Dara and I are probably the only customers who don't work in advertising. A gentle giant who stands at six feet four, he is an immensely likable man.

He kicks off by extolling the virtues of live comedy. "The great thing about stand-up is you have complete editorial control," enthuses the comedian, who became a highly sought after act on the Irish circuit after studying maths and physics at University College, Dublin.

Dara's forte is his interaction with the audience. "I get the biggest kick from chatting to punters," affirms the comedian, who was once a champion student debater. "You could do a whole show about some of the great things the audience has said to me."

He goes on to give some delicious examples. "In Newport one night, I was having a few problems. There was absolutely nothing coming off the audience. Then towards the end, I asked a guy, what's the greatest thing you've ever done? Give me anything.' There was a very long pause and a lot of shuffling around, before your man said well, in 1968, I was the Milky Bar Kid'. The whole place erupted.

"But it didn't end there. I then asked the guy if he got to say those famous words from the ad, the Milky Bars are on me'. And he replied, rather sadly no, they dubbed over my voice because in 1968 this country wasn't ready for a Welsh Milky Bar Kid'. You couldn't make that stuff up."

Dara, who has now moved from Dublin to London, goes on to explain why connecting with his audience is so vital to his live act.

"The banter makes every single show unique," he says. "It also gives it a massive element of the unexpected. Up to 30 per cent of each show comes from that interaction.

"It makes every one of them different, and it also gives me something to work off. I love reacting to stuff. Comedy works best when it's stumbling over impediments.

"If you create a joke out of the audience, it will define that night for them forever. Sometimes, something utterly extraordinary happens. For instance, on one fantastic night in Dublin, there was an opera singer in the audience who sang us out of the theatre to Nessun Dorma. Those kinds of moments are unrepeatable and just priceless."

Dara, who collects rare Coca Cola cans and often receives them as gifts from friends, believes that his comedy has got stronger as he's got older. "You're so much better armed for life when you're 33," muses the comedian. "Things people say which would have thrown you in the playground are absolutely fine now. So when someone sneers you're late, did you get lost on the way?', you now know how to deal with it. You say, no, I didn't get lost. I was shagging your wife'."

The stage persona that Dara adopts to such telling effect is one of mild irritation. He is fed up that so many things in life don't work as you'd expect them to. He describes this outlook as "warm angry rather than Mark Lamarr angry."

Dara, who delivered an outstanding display of such comic crotchetiness on BBC2's Room 101, carries on by underlining why this persona functions so effectively in stand-up.

"The idea of disgruntlement is one thing comedians do better than every other art form. You can paint grief or love, but you can't paint being annoyed by call centres.

"Broad, proper, grown-up emotions are covered by broad, proper, grown-up art forms like painting, music and film.

"Whereas niggly, petty grievances are perfect for stand-up. Misery loves company - particularly if misery can sell tickets to company!"

So, Dara wonders: "Just why is being hacked off so funny? The old chestnut is comedy is the new rock'n'roll. It's true it's live and that it can soar, but comedy doesn't lead to the same sort of inspirational moments as rock'n'roll. What it does best is highlight the infuriating minutiae of everyday life.

"It's so much more fun to discuss the things we hate and it's simpler for an audience to relate to you being exasperated than to you being content. Think of Jack Dee or Victor Meldrew. If a comedian is happy with his lot, then he ceases to be funny and merely becomes irritating. No one wants to see a smug git on stage.

A simmering sense of annoyance invests Dara's act with a tremendous power.

"I want to belt the audience with energy," he affirms. "And the best way to do that is to take on an angry persona. I want to push the audience again and again until they topple over with their arms wind-milling in the air."

So is Dara, who seems the most charming and courteous of men off stage, this irate all the time? "Of course not," he says, with a hearty laugh. "In real life, I'm actually terribly contented, but I couldn't say that on stage. It would ruin my whole act."

Dara O'Briain, October 6. Orchard Theatre, Home Gardens, Dartford. 7.45pm, tickets £17, call 01322 220000 or visit orchardtheatre.co.uk

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