We sat down with Danny O'Brien to find out why a young, successful stand-up comedian would voluntarily give up caffeine, alcohol, meat, and sugar. Watch the interview above.
One fateful night in Austalia, while dancing enthusiastically to The Cure's Close to Me, Danny O'Brien hyper-extended his knee, excessively straightening the joint and tearing his ACL. And despite being "white girl wasted", as he puts it, the Bray man immediately knew he was in trouble.
Under contract to perform, the – just about standing – stand-up strapped his knee every night in order to remain upright for seven weeks of shows, remaining steadfast to the age-old Irish manta: 'Ah, sure, it'll be grand'.
Once back on Irish soil, O'Brien began to realise just how much damage had been done.
Taking up every wellness trend in the book, from pilates and meditation to acupuncture and massage, the funnyman began to treat his body like a temple, not only to repair the damage to his knee but to care for his overall health to avoid the fate of so many of the comics that came before him.
Having read an article in The Guardian titled 'Standup comics are more likely to die young. As a standup comic, I'm not surprised', O'Brien was concerned to read about a landmark study which revealed that comedians are more likely to suffer a premature death than others in the entertainment industry.
Concerned, but not surprised, he began to question the poor habits he himself had fallen into.
"I've been really guilty of it myself for years. There's so much drinking and there's so much hedonism surrounding comedy.
"You're nearly doing a festival every month, in some capacity, and there's always someone – promoters, other comedians, friends in the industry – who will say, 'Haven't seen you for ages, let's go for pints' whether it's a Monday night or a Saturday.
"Suddenly, you wake you up and you're 60 and your liver is gone. I'm trying to balance things out a little bit. I'm not preaching, I'm not going to be clean living forever but I think that taking a break every now and then is the motto of the show."
Fearing for his future health, feeling gluttonous post-Christmas, and finding himself in need of new material for the Edinburgh Fringe, the comic decided to go all-in on a 'clean' lifestyle that resulted in his biggest tour to date, Reformer.
Giving up "all the bold stuff" including sugar, alcohol, caffeine, and meat, Danny was surprised to find out which vice had the biggest hold on him: stress.
"Genuinely – and this is something that I've been trying to work on, that's why I did the meditation stuff – what I'm going to die from is stress, if I don't address it. That's a fact. You can change your diet, you can stop drinking, you can exercise. For me, it's slowing down."
Despite the sobering genesis of the show, O'Brien insists he won't be preaching 'clean living' to anyone in the audience. Instead, he's bringing fans along with him through the most traumatising massage of his life, the habits he'll be keeping up post-tour, and when he plans to get back on the dancefloor.
Tickets for Danny O'Brien's Reformer tour are on sale now - find out more here.
