Caught between his middle-aged dad responsibilities and his ‘naughty boy’ past, Carl Donnelly explains that he could have delivered a trauma-dump show after a bleak 12 months in which he’s experienced grief and debilitating serious illness (both for himself and his young daughter). And in Another Round, he still pays those experiences their due, important psychological scars for a man in his fifth decade. But he couches them within the wry, good humour of a performer eager to relate to his audience and to offer them the diversion of gregarious tales well told.

Superficially, Donnelly’s accounts of drinking abroad in Australia and at an Indian speakeasy, an unplayable gig in Belfast and the obligatory colonoscopy account of the male comic of a certain age don’t offer too much in the way of distinctiveness. But with unshowy mastery, ready self-mockery and an eye for everyday absurdity, Donnelly capably weaves his personal anecdotes through casual social commentary.

If the manner in which his WhatsApp group of school friends has shifted from sharing stories of hedonistic excess to a support group for their various mental and physical ailments, he’s nevertheless hilarious acting out his response if any of their lingering toxicity were to ever become public. And contrasting with his late, reticent Irish parents, the reformed roustabout (occasionally still let off the leash by his enabling wife), reconstructed former divorcee and hippy vegan is determined to be more emotionally available for his daughter. Even if their heart-warming bonding brings with it some doubling-over pain of greater self-awareness.

Carl Donnelly: Another Round, Monkey Barrel Hive, until 24 August, 8.30pm; main picture: Richard Wood.