Flying glass and topless hecklers are part of the job for comedian Danny O’Brien

Doing his first stand-up gigs in tough Dublin pubs was an ideal way for Danny O’Brien to learn his trade, writes Richard Fitzpatrick

DANNY O’Brien was doing some stand-up at a pub on North King St on Dublin’s northside. It was his third gig as a professional comic. He was three minutes into his seven-minute set when a row broke out.

“I was exceptionally green to comedy,” he says. “A couple had an argument in front of me. The guy stormed off. The girl took chase. She got her glass and threw it at him. It smashed off the back of his head. It was like a Western. I panicked. I didn’t know what to do so I just kept telling my jokes.”

Welcome to comedy. “And welcome to Dublin!” he adds.

O’Brien, who grew up in Co Wicklow, has had other scrapes on stage. He was doing a gig in Athy, Co Kildare when a guy from the audience took his top off and tried to storm the stage. Images of the notorious prisoner Charles Bronson who once covered himself in butter before taking on a dozen prison guards in a London prison fight flooded O’Brien’s mind.

“I had to physically wrestle him off the stage,” says O’Brien. “It was a bit awkward, especially with a guy who had his top off. I thought he might have covered himself with Vaseline or something so I wouldn’t be able to grip him. It was unprompted as well. There hadn’t been any argument between me and him. I just saw him thundering up towards the stage.

“Suddenly, I’m wrestling with some bloke and everyone was looking on bewildered.”

O’Brien is emcee at a club in Dublin called The Comedy Crunch, where he directs traffic on stage two or three times a week. He’s learnt a few tricks about how to react to untoward situations.

“When someone drops a glass, for example,” he says, “instead of not acknowledging it, you can have the craic and say, ‘He hates that joke’ like as if he threw the glass on the floor in disgust.” How to diffuse irate hecklers when they get mouthy, especially if they’re drunk, is a different matter. He says they can be sticky situations because inebriated people often won’t realise how badly and illogical they’re behaving.

“The more attention you give them, the more it escalates the situation. Sometimes, I’ll try to get the rest of the room onside. You use the room against them so you’re not the bad guy. ‘Who wants X guy or X girl to shut up for the rest of the show?’

If you’ve 300 people telling you to shut up no matter how drunk you are, you’re going to be quiet pretty quick. You use the audience as a weapon so you don’t have to get your hands dirty.”

O’Brien is steadily building a following. He’s picked up a few awards, including a prize at the 2013 Ted Fest, and sold out his most recent solo run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He has also gigged in the US where he had to localise his gags by taking out — or explaining — Irish references.

“I used to have material about Irish teenage discos when I was growing up. It’s an exceptionally Irish thing — the GAA halls, Lynx Africa, the only deodorant teenagers used when I was a teenager, people drinking flagons, playing ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ as a dance song. None of that really exists in America.”

An American prom is also very different, he explains.

“The Irish disco, the exact opposite of the American ideal of a teenage dance. Ours is a complete car crash. You go into a room and there are 200 people kissing, all of them with their eyes open. It’s like something out of The Walking Dead.”

Danny O’Brien’s show Ah Jaysus! 8pm, Friday, 20 November at Whelan’s in Dublin. For more information, visit: www.whelanslive.com.