On Marriage Equality And Microsoft Paint

David O'Doherty has subverted a quote from Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan for his latest show We Are All In The Gutter But Some Of Us Are Looking At David O'Doherty. "Oscar Wilde was born about four minutes away from where I'm talking to you right now in Dublin," O'Doherty begins. "And as our most famous gay, I thought it would be a good year, because we have marriage equality, to steal and ruin one of his quotes and narcissistically place myself at the centre of it."

"I think with stand-up you can talk about absolutely anything as long as you talk about it in an educated way."

O'Doherty says marriage equality is a subject he'll be speaking to in his show: "I was involved in the campaign here, and it was just, it's the most uplifting… Because Ireland traditionally has had a quite old, Catholic, conservative population, the only idea was 'Well, let's just go get gay and lesbian people and send them out around the country on doorsteps and just get them to ask people to please vote yes.' And the older people who you always regarded as kind of old, conservative farts were the people who voted yes in massive numbers. That's what was so hopeful about it. It was just the idea that you can change, things can change, the world isn't stuck like this.

"I think with stand-up you can talk about absolutely anything as long as you talk about it in an educated way. I think there's better ways of changing the world. I think being a politician or being a great writer or journalist is a better way to do it, but at the same time, I think stand-up does have an influence on people and you are able to talk about quite idealistic things in a way that is hard to just in everyday conversation."

It's those everyday conversations that make the best fodder for stand-up. He's sung before about the way people present themselves on the internet, and he'll return to the subject this year. "The other big thing is the belief that a lot of people have that everyone else in the world is just having a great time. Social media has definitely added to it, that kind of internet culture of taking photographs of fucking avocados and broken typewriters. It's very easy sitting on your own and looking at your computer seeing everyone else with these seemingly perfect lives to think that you're doing it wrong."

But does O'Doherty present himself honestly on stage and online? "Some comedians are really different on stage and off stage, y'know they can be quite insecure off stage and then they present this bulletproof exterior on stage. Obviously the things I say on stage are funnier than the things I'd say to you if I met you in the supermarket, but I do try to represent myself as honestly as possible on stage, and talk about the foibles and the worries and the concerns and aspirations and just what I feel about things.

"And look at my website! I'm very proud of it because normally websites are, you use a template and you sort of present a Helvetica version of yourself, with all those fancy things, whereas my website is crappy cameraphone pictures with Microsoft Paint drawn over them. I think that's a fair representation of how I want to present myself on social media, and how I am as well."