Laughing My Head Off

I consider myself relatively 'in the know' when it comes to staying abreast of the latest and greatest of the stand up comedy circuit. For years I would watch every new Comedy Central Presents, and quickly determine the absolute quality of each involved. I would judge them, and if they were good enough I'd seek out the remainder of their material on the internet. It should suffice to say, not a lot got the full treatment, but quite a few impressed me enough to get my full support. Oddly enough though I don't go out to watch stand up commedians live, but I'll admit that's more of a money issue (the closest comedy club to me charges a cool $40+ just to get in the door for the unknowns).

But as of late I've shied away from the American comedy circuit due to the heavy influx of Dane "look how 'dude' I am" Cook imitators who present a style of comedy that irritates the very depth of my soul. So I started looking overseas for comedians for my humor. I dove through the likes of Frankie Boyle, Jimmy Carr, Ricky Gervais, Rob Ghilbert, and even doubled back in time to check out some old Billy Connolly routines. Yet one stand up really stood out above them all. Perhaps it's because he talks about issues that are the most near and dear to my satirical soul, but also because the guy's just f****** awesome.

I am referring to Irish comedian - and television show presenter - Dara O'Briain. If you're not familiar with his work, don't worry, you're in for a treat. Here are a couple of my favorite routines of his:

*Warning - there's some mature content in these so don't say I didn't warn you.