David McSavage

Andrews appeared as a street performer in Amsterdam, Australia, and in Ireland, including Dublin's Temple Bar.[3][7]

He has performed at national and international comedy festivals[8] such as the Kilkenny Comedy Festival. He became widely known in Ireland for his street performance in Dublin city centre; his street act consists of improvised songs often predicated on sardonic speculations about those passing by.

He is best known for the IFTA-nominated 2009 The Savage Eye, a show consisting of a mixture of comedy sketches and satire.[9][2] During its four-year run on RTE, The Savage Eye satirised Irish public figures and society. The programme outraged several individuals, and he contrasted himself against the “mimicry” of the impressionist Oliver Callan, stating that "his stuff is more tribute. Satire is more vicious than that."[10]

In 2008, McSavage devised and featured in Headwreckers, an episode of Channel 4's Comedy Lab show. In 2014 he played a bishop in the film Calvary (2014 film), starring Brendan Gleeson and Chris O'Dowd. He played William Hall, the publisher of Charles Dickens, in the film The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017).

On his comedy style, the Irish Examiner wrote that “McSavage continues to operate outside the mainstream. He has a fearlessness — a knack for saying uncomfortable things — that is rare on the Irish comedy scene.”[11]

While discussing a comedy sketch on politicians, McSavage (Andrews) was critical of the public's perceived negative attitude towards politicians. He claimed that "for a real leader to emerge he would have to do and say things that are difficult. People see politicians even getting, say, a salary and think, they're bastards, just for getting paid. The politician is us. It's who we are. We get the politicians we deserve."[10] In 2020, he claimed that "the kind of person who wants to be a politician shouldn't be a politician".[12]

In 2014, he accused RTE of "dictatorial censorship" for refusing to broadcast a sketch entitled 'Wild Nuns'. He said that “these things are important. Ultimately you are talking about freedom of speech and who says where the line is. I would be pissed off on somebody else’s behalf if it happened to them.”[13][14] In a 2019 Newstalk radio interview, he agreed with sentiments that Irish comedy had become “too PC.”[15] In a 2021 radio interview, he agreed with the opinion of UK comedian Leo Kearse that “cancel culture is a threat to comedy.” Kearse had previously complained about ‘cancel culture’ after saying that he had had shows disrupted by left-wing protesters and that promoters had blacklisted him for his offensive jokes.[16] In 2020, speaking to the Business Post on the aspect of offence in relation to the content of his material, he said that “the offence thing is funny, because I realised recently that nothing needs to be done. It’s a self-contained, little thing.”[12] In 2021, he named ‘cancel culture’ as a negative aspect to social media, which he believed was changing the nature of stand up.[17]