Leaving Dublin, Ireland where he was born and raised until the age of 22, Dave got drunk on travel and never quite hit sobriety of it. He has lived and worked in twelve countries and visited over seventy. His shows draw on his wide travels, cultural observations, attempts at language study, (occasional) international drinking session(s) and being a mildly confused immigrant in the US.

Dave is the winner of the prestigious annual San Francisco Comedy Competition, (previous finalists include Robin Williams, Ellen DeGeneres and Dana Carvey) and runner up in the Moth’s largest US Grandslam storytelling competition. He recorded his debut special for Dry Bar Comedy in 2019 and has been featured on TED.com, The Irish Independent, Inc, NPR, and the Huffington Post among others. A festival favourite Dave’s videos have also gone viral many times over with over 100 million views and a social following of over 750,000. 

He got his unconventional start in comedy when he tried to overcome his public speaking fears by pretending to be an accomplished comedian called “Irish Dave” for one full year, crashing as many comedy clubs, festivals and shows as possible. One part of the plan was at least logical; he was already Irish and already called Dave. By the end of that year Dave had been on tour with some of Ireland’s best comedians, performed at leading comedy clubs across the US and wrote the bestselling book Do You Talk Funny? arguing that comedians are the world’s true masters of public speaking. (Published by Benbella/Persius).

Dave is also the founder of Comedy for a Spinal Cause, FunnyBizz Conferences and the Real Irish Comedy Tour. Always a witty storyteller, he now calls California home when immigration officials permit.