Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Cover image credit: Thumbnail: YouTube · David Nihill

Shelf Help

David Nihill

YouTube · 2025 · 1 h 38 min

An Irish immigrant mixes travel stories with actual book recommendations.

Watch it free on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

David Nihill walks on stage carrying a literal stack of books, which is a bold choice for a stand-up comedian. In a medium usually dedicated to dating complaints and airport frustrations, he frames his set around reading recommendations, using nonfiction bestsellers as launchpads for autobiographical stories. He is less concerned with traditional setup-punchline delivery than with loose storytelling, a style he claims stems from his dyslexia and a self-prescribed public speaking therapy program inspired by Malcolm Gladwell.

Most of the material comes from his life as a perpetual immigrant who left Dublin at 22 and lived in a dozen countries. The book recommendations, ranging from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan to Hans Rosling’s Factfulness, serve as transitions into his chaotic travel diaries. He details getting arrested for an open container violation in New Hampshire after a Coors Light chugging competition, a misdemeanor his mother celebrated by replacing her framed wedding photo with his mugshot. He also walks the audience through his brief, unqualified stint teaching English in Colombia and the linguistic shortcut of adding an “e” to English words to speak Portuguese.

The special exists in two self-funded versions released in late 2025. He put out a version filmed at the Neptune Theatre in Seattle on his own YouTube channel in September, followed by a longer edit taped at Comedy on State in Madison, Wisconsin, released through 800 Pound Gorilla Media in December. Both cuts rely on his crowd-engaging style, complete with slideshow projections of his actual arrests and travel stunts.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Using books and reading as an audience filter

    Explains how putting 'reading' and piles of books into show marketing served as a natural selection filter to repel racists after an alarming encounter with an Alabama audience member.

  2. Irish white guilt and identification with Black culture

    Riffs on how Irish people have no white guilt because they picked their own potatoes, and grew up listening to NWA and Public Enemy while identifying with Black American civil rights struggles.

  3. Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary shortcut

    Deconstructs how many Brazilian Portuguese words are simply English words with the letter 'e' added to the end.

  4. The Irish Grapefruit Ladies

    Highlights the historical anti-apartheid strike by eleven Irish supermarket workers who refused to handle imported South African grapefruit.

  5. International antics and slideshow

    Shows visual evidence of his travels on screen, including an American mugshot for an open container violation, diving with tiger sharks, and bungee jumping strapped to a chair.

How it plays

Tone
Intelligent, educational, warm, self-deprecating, and uplifting.
On stage
A mildly confused Irish immigrant, dyslexic avid reader, and globe-trotting storyteller who weaves analogies, travel tales, and history instead of traditional setup-punchline jokes.
Pace
Described as possessing a mind like a 'runaway train,' rapidly darting off on tangents before masterfully looping back to his original premise.
About
books and reading recommendations, international travel and living abroad, language learning and multilingualism, dyslexia, Irish identity, race, and culture, historical trivia

What the critics said

Praised by reviewers as a superb, educational, and masterfully told night of comedy that expands the genre by pairing laughter with genuine intellectual curiosity.

In the room: Engaged and interactive, with the audience responding to frequent crowd banter, accents, and multilingual queries.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: davidnihill.com, themusichall.org, paramountny.com, beat.com.au, latimes.com, weekendnotes.com.

Backstory

A dyslexic Irishman who initially took up standup comedy to conquer a debilitating fear of public speaking. Self-funded by Nihill after performing 177 shows across 17 countries, combining standup with reading and book recommendations.

Details

Released
Taped
Neptune Theatre, Seattle
Runtime
1 h 38 min
Where
YouTube
Director
Brent James Driscoll
Honors
One of Netflix is a Joke Fest's funniest shows – LA Times
Topics
Before
Cultural Appreciation (2023)

More from David Nihill

If you liked this