DAVID O'DOHERTY	Download Full Press Release (1.5MB)
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Venue:   Stand 3 Dates:    1 - 24 (not 11th) Time:      21:00 Tickets:  £9.50 / £8.50

SOLD OUT 21ST, 22ND & 23RD - RETURNS ON THE DOOR FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THE SHOW

David O'Doherty writes -

Dear Member of the Press,

It's Tuesday 6th May 2008 and I am using the coin-operated computer in the lobby of The Country Comfort Inn, Cairns, Australia. (Slogan: Could you do with a little Country Comfort? Answer: I could do with a second pillow and curtains that close all the way please.) I am here as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow. The Roadshow is an annual event where performers who have come over for Melbourne's comedy festival travel to the Australian provinces, generally finding that many of their hipster jokes about texting and the internet don't wash this far out in the sticks.

We have a day off today so I thought I'd check my email, and have just received this politely frantic forward from my agent:

2008/5/6 Flee <flee@************.ie>:

>> Hi Nicky
>>
>> Still chasing the 500 word biog from him.
>>
>> Hopefully will have it in the next day or two.
>>
>> Sorry
>>
>> Flee


The truth is I've put off doing up this press release because I find them so dull to write, to read, everything. In previous years I've gone for ironic overstatement ("Hang on to your minds Edinburgh, David O'Doherty, the viscount of rumpled whimsy, the marble fawn of tiny keyboard based musical comedy is coming back!"©2007) but that seems a little tired now. I could get a PR person to write this, but I have a fair idea how that would turn out: "Komedy's kraziest dingbat is back!!!!!! His show will have a whole lotta sass a little bit of crass and a big bag o'shinannegans LOL ROFL!!!!! : ). My comedy doesn't really lend itself to 500 word exposition, but I shall do my best to make this as interesting as possible for both of us. Here goes.

I left Dublin on 16 Feb and have written the new show since then in locations such as New York, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Wellington and now The Country Comfort Inn, Cairns. The nice thing is that as I've been doing solo shows almost every night, I've been able to constantly tweak, rewrite and banish. This is the first time I've employed this technique and I'm very pleased with the result. The show is a mix of talking and songs played on a tiny piano, and while it doesn't have a tight narrative or anything like that, the lady from the Sydney Morning Herald pointed out that it does have a central idea:

"If there is a theme, and O'Doherty is a master at following the tributaries of his wandering mind without sinking into indulgence, it is the ridiculous nature of hype in today's world."

Thank you very much SMH. Consider my free internet subscription renewed.

I've got a Summer tour of Ireland and a run of shows at Montreal to go before Edinburgh so it will continue to evolve, but I want to keep this as the main notion. The other main ideas are written on the back of my hand from last night's gig. They are:

- Other things you could have done (rather than come to this show)
- Lower your expectations (for the show)
- Technology will not save us
- How I recently cheated death.
- My beefs 2008

Does that seem exciting? Probably not. But I am very excited. I'm excited to return to the Edinburgh Fringe with a show I really enjoy doing and I'm excited to get to do it at The Stand.

I'm doing another show by day for kids at The Assembly Rooms and I've just realised that I'll have to write another press release for that too. Balls.

But now I have to go as angry backbackers have filled the lobby demanding to know how much longer I'll be using the computer.

Thank you for reading this,

DO'D

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