Comic behind the infamous alter-ego is back on tour... as himself

The man behind Dapper Laughs is going back on tour. a decade after the misogyny row which cost him his ITV2 series.

But now Daniel O’Reilly is to perform stand-up under his own name, with the promotional material making no mention of the alter-ego that made him infamous.

O’Reilly – now a regular commentator on GB News – will be hitting the road next year with a show called Out Of Character.

Suggesting the Dapper Laughs alter-ego was not true to his own personality, the blurb says: ‘He has had many characters, but for this live show he's going Out Of Character to stand up as he brings the laughs and looks back on the mischief, the mistakes and the madness of his career so far. From losing it all, battling addiction and becoming a father he’s been on some rollercoaster.’

O’Reilly, now 38, still uses the Dapper Laughs handle on Twitter, where he has 383,000 followers, and Instagram, where he has almost 800,000

He has latterly embraced mental health podcasting with a show called Menace II Sobriety, having battled drug and alcohol addiction and being diagnosed with ADHD. He also runs a Facebook group called Men And Their Emotions (MATE)

It’s a far cry from 2014 when he shot to fame as Dapper Laughs on the back of his single Proper Moist, with lyrics such as: ‘They'll be hatin' on me for havin' a little bit a fun / Cause I’’ll check her down and fuck her mum’.

He was quickly handed an ITV2 dating show called On The Pull, which was heavily criticised for being degrading to women. After footage emerged of him telling a woman at one of his live shows that she was ‘gagging for a rape’, the TV show was cancelled and tour dates pulled. At the time, O’Reilly said he was merely repeating back what the audience member had shouted at him.

He gave a contrite interview to Newsnight – famously wearing a black turtleneck to show how serious he was being –  saying ‘Dapper Laughs is gone’. But just weeks later he was back making videos for social media with the same alter-ego.

O’Reilly - now the father of two daughters aged six and four – also appeared on Celebrity Brother in 2018

Earlier this month, he told the Daily Star he was 'terrified' for his daughters' safety and admitted: ‘Having daughters has opened my eyes to how dangerous some of my content could have been’

He said he had now ‘learned a lot about what was going on in the world with sexual harassment, sexual violence and and what women have to put up with, and now I'm terrified.’

Claiming that Dapper Laughs was a ‘satire’ of lad culture, he added: ‘Sometimes that image was taken too far and it could very much have influenced people in the wrong way.

‘But I was a different person and I didn't have children. I was a right knobhead back then.’

‘When I look back, I can see why people that were older than me, that had daughters and women found it offensive.’

» Daniel O'Reilly: Out Of Character tour dates.

Published: 27 Mar 2023