DUBLIN COMEDIAN David O'Doherty has won the If.Comedy (formerly the Perrier) award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
The award carries with it a prize of £8,000, a run in a West End theatre and a chance for O'Doherty to make a major impact on the international comedy scene. Previous winners of the biggest comedy prize at the Edinburgh Festival include such high-profile names as Stephen Fry, Steve Coogan and The League Of Gentlemen, who all used the award to build successful television careers.
O'Doherty becomes the fifth Irish comic to win the If. Comedy/Perrier award, after Ben Keaton (1986), Seán Hughes (1990), Dylan Moran (1996) and Tommy Tiernan (1998).
O'Doherty (32), has been performing his one-man show, called Let's Comedyat the festival for the last four weeks. Late on Saturday night, a panel of judges drawn from the comedy industry deemed his show to be the best of hundreds eligible at the fringe and he was presented with his award by the Australian broadcaster and journalist Clive James at a glittering ceremony in a city-centre club.
In his acceptance speech, O'Doherty, from Ballsbridge in Dublin, thanked his father and his brother for helping him to break into the world of stand-up comedy. His father is the well-known jazz pianist Jim Doherty and his brother is the playwright and screenwriter Marc Doherty. David added the "O" to his surname when he first began in comedy to distinguish himself from his brother Marc, who was also a comedian at the time. He added, "the role of comedians in 2008 is to explore the dark recesses of our mind and come up with the best shows we possible can - that's the idea of comedy that I've been working from".
O'Doherty's show has been playing to full houses and garnering glowing reviews all August long.
The director of the panel of If.Comedy judges, Nica Burns, said of O'Doherty's win: "After one of the longest and most animated debates, the panel finally chose from this very strong shortlist a comedian whose work can only be summed up as utterly delightful. An hour with David O'Doherty fills the world with laughter and charm, and sends you home on a wave of happiness." In their review, the Guardiannewspaper went even further saying "when a standup gig goes this well, you do get a sense of how religions are started".
It's been a busy Edinburgh for O'Doherty as he has been performing in three shows every day. In the afternoon he appears with Cork comedian, Maeve Higgins, in a children's comedy show; in the evening he has his own solo show and at midnight he appears as part of an ensemble cast in a show called The Honourable Men of Art.
O'Doherty now only has a few days to fulfil all the media commitments that come with winning such an award before appearing in the Comedy Tent at this weekend's Electric Picnic Festival in Stradbally, Co Laois.