At the start of Astonishing Obscurity, David Quirk bursts onto the stage and performs a vigorous lip-sync dance to Prince’s 1981 ballad ‘Do Me, Baby’ while cavorting over the empty front-row seats and spilling onto the crowd. This striking routine is as far away from the crux of the show as it’s possible to get but it serves as a neat callback to the moment in 2017 when his career hit a bump, causing him to (temporarily) quit comedy.

The thrust of his hour is a vanishingly brief newspaper article mentioning his brother, Australian rules football player Michael. In it, writer Russell Jackson penned a few pithy lines deriding the sportsman’s distinguished career, and it’s safe to say that David took this familial slight very much to heart. What follows is a furious, at times deranged tirade directed at the offending writer. Quirk categorically detests the man and, while the comedian’s career lay in hibernation, he became hell-bent on avenging his brother’s pride.
Quirk’s anger is painfully evident and it frequently overpowers his jokes. While the crowd chuckle along sparingly there’s not much to laugh at, particularly when Quirk’s behaviour veers towards stalking (something he pointedly recognises himself). But at the very end it all comes together with a poignant twist that works so well because of the long, dark path laid before it. This is an engrossing tale that trades humour for profundity.
David Quirk: Astonishing Obscurity, The Stand 4, until 27 August, 8.05pm.