O'Briain is one of those stand-ups who just seems to have been hit by the funny stick.

He exudes warmth and spontaneous good humour, and it's always a delight to be entertained by him. Since he's an Irishman, it would be easy to stereotype this unmistakable charm as some sort of innate gift of the gab. But there's keen well-thought-out material behind the blarney.

He uses no gimmicks, other than a naturally fast-talking delivery, no cutting-edge nudging of boundaries .But he talks, you listen and you laugh.

The material is frequently topical, fresh from the day's headlines, but he can also delve into bigger issues: boldly taking the rise out of hundreds of years of Irish struggle, for instance.

It's a difficult trick to makes stand-up look this easy, but his impressive array of smart observations, deftly delivered, make it all seem so effortless.