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October 8th and 9th. Zippered welcome to Friday
episode of the tea with me podcast with me Shane Todd as
bloody per I'm going to launch straight into it.
It's a guest episode. My guest is the brilliant calm
Terrell column is someone I have gigged a few times with in
Dublin couple of times in Belfast.
He's from Dublin moved over to New York some years ago to a
guest pursue a comedy dream. New York, as we talk about is
probably the capital of of comedy at the minute.
So I talk about moving from Ireland over to America and how
you find performing on the comedy scene out there.
Very entertaining guy, brilliant stand up as well.
So after this episode, do go check him out.
Go look at some of the stuff. Very very funny, really original
style. Let's just get into it separate.
This is a tea with me episode with my friend Com Terrell.
Before I started let me just plug the Patreon which is
patreon.com/tea with me podcast where you get the bonus episode
access to the live episodes as they happen on my stand up
special from last year. Also just got to say on Monday
morning tickets go on sale for my brand new show in the SSA
Arena. The show is called Chancer. 6th
of November next year. Tickets on sale this Monday on
Ticketmaster. On Monday morning you'll see me
post about it. I will relentlessly post about
it until the 2nd of until the 5th of November next year.
For anyone asking as well. It's a different show to the one
that I'm going to be doing at the waterfront.
That's called somebody told me. This one at the SSC in November
will be a different R of stand up and then I'll probably tour
that in early 2022. So let's get into it.
This is the episode here with me episode with my friend.
Normally these podcasts are like, yeah, 45 minutes, an hour
or something like that. You said you've got nothing to
do for basically like the rest of the foreseeable.
So I'm just thinking like, what could, what could we do?
You know, if we like finish recording, but we just kept it
rolling, like what depths would we get into?
Because we had a chat before we started recording there.
And I mean, we got kind of deep in that 3 minutes.
I know, I know. You're.
Oh, it's like you release an 8 hour podcast, but it's like the
first hours conversation and then after that we just sort of
we're just sitting. Yeah, we're just sitting there.
The first question I ask people in the podcast is, do you drink
tea? Do you drink a lot of tea?
Like talking about your relationship with tea.
If I'm not mistaken, you're drinking tea out of a Guinness
class, which might be the most beautiful thing I've seen in 70
odd episodes of this podcast. Unfortunately, you are mistaken.
This is a This is an iced coffee actually.
I mean, no, it's just no, it just feels rude.
There's an iced coffee with my metal straw looking after the
turtles. And So what I do is actually,
and it's probably not the way you're supposed to do, I make a
pot of coffee every morning and then if I don't finish the
coffee I put in the fridge iced coffee the next day.
Yeah, I mean, not in my head that makes a lot of sense, but
there probably is a lot of nerds who are going to jump in the
comments section and be like, and actually that will that will
give you, you know, some athletes food.
You know, I mean, like someone will jump in and be like, that's
that's bad, that's bad for you. Like I found out recently,
you're not supposed to reheat rice.
Apparently. You're not supposed to reheat
rice. If you've microwaved rice once,
you're not supposed to do it again.
Or I don't know, like something like you're cursed or I don't
know, like there's there's something bad.
Were you drinking iced coffee before?
Because I want to talk to you about going going to New York,
all that kind of thing. But were you drinking iced
coffee when you were living like in Dublin?
Or did you move to America and you were like, yes, now I can do
this? Yeah, I was like, I used to do a
closet. I was in the closet with my iced
coffee back in Ireland. People, people be looking at me.
I'm like, what's that? And I'm like, it's a it's a
point. I don't look at me.
And then I came over here. I just it's a whole new world.
That's why, that's why you have it in the pint class now.
You're still just not, not, not confident enough.
You're like, it's fucking, it's Bailey's.
It's Bailey's door just in. Case my dad fucking watches
this. I'm like, no, I was drink.
I was drunk. I was.
I got lose. I didn't see I'm seeing you.
I mean, the last time I saw you was was actually in New York
when I was over doing some shows.
And you at that point, how long would you been in New York for
roughly? Like, you've been in New York
for about four years now. Five years.
Six years now coming up, man, it was the end of 2014.
I moved barf. I came back for one of the
summers, but it's one. Of those things that everybody
says as a comedian, you're like, oh, maybe I'll just move to New
York. Maybe I'll just move to LA.
Even London feels like something that people always, and I've
done it years ago. You'd be like, yeah, and I'm
getting out of here. I'm going to do this there.
But you actually just did it. And it felt so weird because no
one actually just goes and moves.
And I hadn't seen you for like, I think the first time after you
moved that I saw you was at the Edinburgh Fringe.
And I was like, I totally see why you made that move because I
just remember like being blown away because your style was
different. Your delivery was I'd seen you
like 3-4 five times before that. And I was like, you have learned
so many skills in New York, but your ACT was still you, if that
makes sense. Because it was just then it was
in the caves in Edinburgh. And I was like, I see why that
move is so beneficial. Like, did you?
How do you feel your comedy changed going from going from
Ireland, New York? Yeah, I guess it was weird at
first because you kind of had to.
I kind of broke that, sort of lose everything I learned, you
know, in Ireland and then rebuild from the bottom.
And then I had to try to remember all the stuff that I
learned from Ireland too, because there's a lot of great
stuff in Ireland. I love Irish comedy.
It's sort of just, it's sort of just so small that it's just,
it's hard to, you know, almost make a living there, you know?
I find a weird an observation. I always thought of doing gigs
in Dublin and around different parts of the South was and, and,
and Northern Ireland as well. In fact, comedy here in general
is you're kind of taught to really perform, like engage with
the crowd, almost like be a presenter, you know what I mean?
Like you made eye contact, work the stage.
Then the first time I did some gigs in New York, I did some
open mics and I stood forward and really tried to make eye
contact with people. And it was a lot of comedians in
the crowd and they fucking hated it.
They looked at me like, this is not what we do.
And they all perform with their backs to the brick wall stage,
head down, kind of like, no, no, no.
Like punch lines, you know, like a wink and a nudge punch lines.
It was just material. So like, I think the difference
is, is massive. But did you, when you first
went, were you just doing the same set that you've been doing
in Dublin and then over time it changed or did you?
Yeah, I think so. If I remember, I don't think
when I first moved him and just moving here was hard.
I don't think I did an open mic for about fucking five weeks
when I moved there because I was just trying to move to a new
country. You know, I was just a young kid
with no fucking money. So I was working and I was
trying to learn the subway system and and then you start
doing comedy and it's tough out here, too.
The open mic scene here is brutal, man.
So I've seen like a little like a tiny bit of that and, and it
seemed like like so clicky from what, from what I saw.
Like, I mean, I've got, I've performed a tiny bit in America,
A lot of places I've gone like so welcoming.
But like the the open mic scene in New York felt like, like
people would just down with their backs to you.
Like I'd always try and introduce myself to people, but
not be like, you know, full on, you know, I'd just like say
hello. And there was a vibe there that
like, yeah, definitely like an outsider type vibe.
Yeah, I guess it's just so many people here too.
It's like you can't just be making friends with everyone you
know. The.
It's a waste of time to be talking to every comic over here
because they're not going to be doing it in a month or two, you
know? I remember the first time we
gigged together was in Rd Is that play?
Rd is that. Right, I thought.
I thought it was an Rd. I knew it was definitely that
guy column. I think his name was too right
or. Alan Alan Gurnan.
Alan Gurnan Yeah, it was New Year's Day.
It was New Year's Day. Yeah, it was a 2:00 PM show or
something. Right.
And it was like a good, it was one of the, I think it was the
first time Booker from down South had actually like
contacted me about doing a set and it like a 10 minute set.
So I felt like I didn't care if it was Christmasy.
I was like, I'm going down to do this gig. 2:00 PM I was like
2:00 PM, let's do it, let's go. And it was like kind of middle
of nowhere and like full nightclub.
The place was packed. And I remember that being my
first gig with you. I think because, and it always
stands out to me because you were wearing like an Inter Milan
football top and that is one of my top 10 favourite moments of
any experience in stand up because like from the bottom,
like you're wearing like shoes, jeans, belt.
I'm like, yes, business, business comedy, get to the top
half. I'm like 5 aside as I, I think
he's booked in for five aside just after this and just ready
to make a quick move. Something about the confidence
that I was like, it's lovely swear because I mean, for some
reason if it was like a Liverpool shirt or Man United
shirt it wouldn't have affected me as much.
But the fact that it was Inter Milan, it's like this is great,
this is great. This is like, this has let me
feel that there is some sort of future where I can just wear a
football game because that's what I want to do, I'm sure.
That was a knockoff shirt too. I'm pretty sure that because it
was true. The fucking ringer.
I don't know who owned that. That wasn't even my shirt.
I stole that from my brother, who stole it from someone else.
I. Think about it.
Milan had two else and. I remember that show man, and
I'm still angry. There was a couple of fucking
naughty women the front yapping because it was a free show that
he gave as like a customer. Like it was free for them
because it was like a customer loyalty.
Right. Right.
We didn't charge anyone in, but most people just wanted to go
drink in the fucking pub because it's New Year's Day.
So that we were doing comedy at 2:00 in the day and people are
just talking, having a conversation.
And I remember like turning around someone, Yo, can you guys
not talk? We're doing a show here.
And then they were just like, no, we're going, we're just
going to keep talking. I'd rather talk and disturb your
show than listen to you. And I was like.
How much? How much do people, yeah, like
completely blindsided when as a stand up you ask them to if they
would consider not talking so you can talk Like people are
like, what the like, where did that come?
You know, people are like the audacity, like people don't
understand it. And what about when people say
like a promoter or like security or I didn't know you couldn't
talk? Yeah, I'm helping that.
I'm helping the show. Yeah.
It's part of the show. Me throwing bottles of fucking
beer at the fuck. What that did you, did you gig
much, would you tell many gigs in like Belfast in the North?
You're coming up a little. Bit right a lot.
I used to drive up a lot on Monday.
So when I started out, I would drive up to Pavilion, the
Pavilion on Mondays. Yeah, nearly at least once a
month I would go. I used to make sure that I would
go to Cork once a month, Belfast once a month and Galway once a
month. Every every other week I would
rotate it around because there's nothing to do.
That's not a fun. When I moved to New York, they
do a thing called barking here where they run bar shows and
which is just like a regular show I guess.
And but they have people on the street flyer and trying to get
in tourists. What they do is it's almost like
a rite of passage. They make you stand on the
street and flyer and if you do that for like 2 hours, they'll
give you fucking 7 minutes of stage time or some shit.
Unpaid, unpaid. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You're just doing it so you can get in front of a real audience.
But I showed up here and they were like, oh, you got to do
that. I was like, I'm not, I'd rather
just sit at home and not do comedy down down on the street,
like fucking Mickey Mouse promoting your show.
And then they're like, oh, you got to pay your dues.
And I, I got, I paid my dues. I used to drive down to Cork and
back on a Friday night from Dublin.
I drive to Belfast. I spent all that money.
I did all that and I guess it probably hint held.
It held me back a bit. Not playing the game over here,
but hey, listen. Six years later.
Overnight, overnight success. And just like, yeah, play that.
I think you're right. Because if people if people see
you flying for a show and then you do the show, then they
they're not going to think comedian first and foremost.
They'll think there's the guy that was outside giving me the
giving me the flyer. I see that in Times Square.
Is there a place called like Times Square Comedy Club or like
lol comedy club? Those guys fucking love it.
They're the most hype guys we've ever seen in my life.
Those guys flying in a page, they're on Commission that's
people are genuinely trying to just survive.
So they're they're not comics during the first stage.
So funny lol times Bill Burr was in town last year and he was, he
was doing the movie with Pete Davidson and he was staying in a
hotel not far from there and he was on his way back from a show
and he came across lol. But he came in and was like hey,
can I just do can I run a set? And they're like Nah, sorry man,
we're booked. And the guy's like, well, I'm
actually of experienced comedian, you know.
And the guy was like, you don't have to e-mail the owner man,
I'm sorry. And he's like.
I'd love it. I'd love it if he gave him a
sandwich board. He's like, listen, you do 2
hours, you can back in, you get 5 minutes.
I wouldn't even mind they're they're known for lying that
that club. All the credits, the credits
that they get, yeah. They'll be like Jerry Seinfeld's
dropping in tonight, Jerry Seinfeld.
So they're probably promoting Bill Burr to people and then he
showed up to try get a spot and they wouldn't.
Yeah, why? So did you, let's go back a bit.
Did you move over to New York for stand up or did you just
move up for some move over for something different?
Yeah, pretty much for stand up. I definitely knew I was going to
be doing stand up and I kind of had a little bit of because I'm
a bit, I'm very self hating. I felt, I always felt guilty
that I was able to start in Dublin and other comedians had
to move from the country like So does like Chris Kent to be a
friend of mine. He moved from Cork to Dublin so
he could get more shows. And I was, I felt privileged
that I was able to just be born there.
So I was able to just do open mics and all that type of stuff
all the time. So I said in order for me to
sack to get better, I'll have to sacrifice like them.
And it was either going to be London or America.
And luckily I just graduated college so I was able to get a
year visa at the time. So I had like an internship
bullshit. So I just said I might as well
do it now otherwise I'll never have the opportunity.
And then I just, I just never came home pretty much.
That's, I mean, it's, it's such a like, it's a ballsy move.
And it's one of those ones where like, like you say, people, I
think people make so many sideways moves where they're
like, let me move to this place first.
Maybe I'll move to Chicago and then maybe I can get closer than
you. But to just to just going like,
you can't be just going to do something.
And I mean, I thought LA was like the comedy capital.
I was like, this is where the best stand up is.
Went to watch some shows that like the Comedy Store.
I was like the history. I was like, this is it.
This is the best stand up point for point I'll ever see.
And then I went to watch some shows in your clubs and I was
like, I haven't heard as much of these guys as I had heard of the
comedians in New York. But the quality of stand up is
infinitely better. Like everybody, yeah, a lot of
in LA it was a lot of the same act, just done by different
people, you know what I mean? It was, it was sanitised.
It was like a similar, it was very like like a polished show.
Then when I go to New York, I'm like, oh fuck.
Well this is the stand up that I like.
This is, this is much more raw or something.
I'm not. Even saying it's just because
I'm in New York and I do love the rivalry because it's so
silly to me because in a heartbeat if I was in LA be
saying the opposite. I'm like a football player who's
like one year I'm playing for everything, one year I'm playing
for Liverpool. I don't give a fuck.
But LA stinks though. That does really stink for
producing comedy. There's a lot of great big names
out there. But in terms of what it
develops, it's, there's just, they all want a sitcom, I
believe. So they're always trying to
showcase hell, animated, they can be, you know, on stage.
So the only difference is at least the big names still do
comedy over there. The big names don't really do
any comedy in New York. Like you got John Mulaney, He
doesn't really do comedy. You know, Louis is here and I
guess he's doing comedy now again, but he sort of stopped
for a long time over the scandal.
Yeah, you did a gig with, I saw on Instagram you did a gig with
him recently where he popped in to do a spot.
My big question is, did you get to see it?
Yeah. Did you see the set?
Locked the door and I had to. I said please, Louis.
You had to see the set. How funny.
Daddy, if he's like, listen, I got something to show you,
locked the door. You're like, oh, fuck no.
I mean, it might help my career or whatever.
Then he just starts doing new bets and you're like, oh, thank
fuck yeah. You know, he rustles around the
pants and then he pulls out like a set list, a little piece of
paper. Like shit, Louis, he's running,
he's running bits by me. I go.
I'd rather you fucking rubbed one out.
How awkward is it when somebody backstage at a gig, like
especially one of your friends, it's like, listen, I've got to
run this thing by you and you're like, and you don't have enough
time or you're trying to concentrate on your own thing,
so you know you're not going to give it enough.
It's running stuff just before a show Backstage is not, it's not
good, like you say. I think I'd prefer to just to
just see the scene. I always say, though, like I
got, yeah, that could work. Yeah, yeah, that could work.
And then that's that's I never gave an honest opinion on
anyone's material in my life. The immortal line is there's
something in it. When you're like, listen,
there's something in it. Yeah, I've heard that one.
I've heard that one a few times, right.
Yeah, Yeah. You could tweak it.
You could just do something there.
Yeah. But it was when I did the, IT
was when I did the stand in New York when I was like, this is
far better because I felt like in LA, even even like the way
people were dressed like in LA, the comedians and some of my
favourite comedians, they looked so sharp, like expensive
jackets. It seemed like it was almost
like competition to say you could have like the modest
trainers. And then I come to New York and
everybody's just wearing a plain hoodie, pair of jeans.
And it's just about, it's about the material.
And then someone I know, I know you know you're friendly with.
And I've had him on this podcast.
Shane Gillis, when I saw his, when I saw him do stand up, I
was like, this one of the best, this one of the best bits of
material I've ever seen in my life.
Yeah. He's great.
And he's just like, he's just up there kind of playing hoodie,
just doing the material. No, like like you say, like, you
know, show busy thing about it. It's just killer material.
And then I was like, Oh yeah, this is this is where it's at.
But. For this such on that it's like
that's but that's a very much regardless of comedy.
That's just like a culturally like the difference of New York
and LALA is all about showing your wealth and Peacock in and
they they don't really have any embarrassment to show off how
wealthy they are in New York. It's much more of a hidden
thing. Just naturally all the wealth is
off. So like it's like Louis, I did
that show the other night. I was hosting the show and all
these shows now because there's so few rooms running comedy that
you're getting huge drop in. So David Tail dropped in, he's a
he's a millionaire. Louis CK dropped in, he's a
multi millionaire. At least he was until I probably
got the lawsuits. And then you got Joe List and
Mark Norman and they look, everyone looks like they're
about to go back to work. You know, it looked like on a
fucking lunch break, working the night shift at a shopping
centre. So many of those guys I listened
to the podcast to less Mark Normand to especially and and
like that some of the lineups that I saw when I was was in
Europe a couple days were just just so, so good.
And I think that is probably where I'd be most excited about
about doing shows again because I was supposed to go to America
at this at the very start of lockdown, like Saint Patrick's
Day basically. And, and obviously like it was
like 5050 on the day, it was like, do I get this flight?
Is it going to be OK coming back?
And then the next day it's like, thank God I didn't go on the
flight, but I've rescheduled it for like April next year.
And that's what I wanted to ask you about.
It was like, what's, what's the state of things out there?
Because here in Belfast, we, I have been able to do socially
distant shows. It's been great.
But you're kind of like hustling a lot like any, anything that is
allowed to have comedy that I've been asked to do a show at, I
would I would walk to go and do a show at it like for free, like
performing as much as possible. Now we've had this like second,
like lockdown supposed to be doing shows before Christmas.
Hopefully it's going to happen. But there has been no comedy
really for most people. So what?
What's a crack in LA because or in New York, Sorry, because the
vibe I get is that everything's closed, end of the world type
stuff. But what's what's the reality as
a comedian right now in New York?
Yeah, it's, it's there's not much going on.
New York's brutal anyway. So even at the best of times,
pre horseshit, it was it's brutal.
You know, there's a lot of free shows and there's a lot of
fucking famous people taking the spots that you want.
You know, so like when you say the Stand and or the Comedy
Cellar, all these places, you know, Chris Rock will show up
and bump you and it's sort of just the way it is.
And you don't get paid much, very much money you.
Know describe bumping for somebody who doesn't know stand
up that well because that's something that doesn't happen
really here because we don't have the names but.
You'd be the guy. You'd be the guy bumping.
I would bump. I'm not a bumper.
You're not a bumper now. I'll wait it out.
I would, I would do it just for
the just for the trail of it. And then I just go.
I did it once and. I can't do it again.
No, I. Would now bumping would be and
I'm not really sure how it works in the company seller fucking
but it's the idea that like say maybe yeah what's what's what's
that black guy was it was in a coma after the car crash Tracy
Morgan. Tracy Morgan.
Yeah, he would. He'll just show up and not to
make you pregnant. And then like that's what he
says for 45 minutes on stage, but he'll, he'll show up and go.
I'm gonna go up next. And they go, OK.
So they turn around to whoever's booked and go, Yeah, you're
bumped, you're done. So, and this is the way it is
because he would have had to experience that when he was
starting now. And I think a lot of it from
what I hear on podcasts and stuff, a lot of it can be, you
know, you me might be booked to do 10 minutes or 20 minutes or
whatever. But if if a star comes in and
goes, I'm going up, there's no such thing as a set time.
Like they're going up for as long as they want to go up.
And I think who's the guy who's the black comedian in America in
LA and the Comedy Store apparently used to go in and do
like 2 hours regularly in the middle of like a pack lineup.
He's just going to go. And Dane Cook parent used to do
that quite a lot as well. Like, OK, calling in to do a
spot, I'm bumping someone, it's not great etiquette, but just do
a short set and go. I mean to like state hijacked
the night like that. That doesn't sound.
That does sound good to me. I don't think they do that
really anymore. I think clubs became aware that
it's not worth ruining the night just so someone can stroke their
ego. Yeah.
I have heard that Chappelle would do it on a Wednesday night
or something, but he would go blast and then just say I'm
going to talk for two hours so you can leave when you want to
leave. But he's not really.
He's just adding to the show, you know?
Yeah, I guess. Yeah, that's, I guess that's a
good way to do and. Nowadays they they can't do it
at the seller either because it's so busy that they have a
strict schedule. So if you show up to 15, you do
your 15. It doesn't matter if you're
Louis, as far as I know. Maybe maybe it's different over
there, but as I know, as if it doesn't matter if you're Chris
Rock, if the show's over, the show's over because they've got
too many tickets. They got to keep it rolling.
Is there, is there like an Irish comedy community out there?
Is there anybody else? I don't.
I can't think.
Oh yeah, yeah, I know Katie was on in Caroline's that night with
us, but I think maybe I missed her set, but I just, yeah, I
know of her as like being somewhat like obviously someone
from Ireland out there. And so like the Irish comedy
scene in New York is you and Katie, pretty much.
Yeah, I wish it was bigger man. And if anyone ever came out, you
know, like if you were ever out here, I'd love to create
something. It's just so hard for people to
get visas and stuff. And normally by the time you can
can get one like yourself, you're probably, you know, you
Northern Irish guys fucking you be selling out stadiums and
shit. So it's like.
Yankee Stadium. Yeah, I just played the O2 there
last night, and now you're going to go do an open mic and fucking
back for stage time? You're like 80,000 tickets sold
last year. What?
No big deal. You guys are crazy.
And then you're going to come over for this horseshit?
Yeah. Bumped for Chris Rock.
No way. Then I would, yeah.
I mean, there's just something about it though where you're
like, you know, there's a real good stand up scene in Belfast
at the minute. But when you go away to
somewhere where where you don't have that kind of advantage of,
OK, some people in this audience might have seen me before or
might might know some of my stuff from online when that sort
of safety blanket is away, because that's great at the
time, because you kind of like you get more of a period of
grace when you first get up, you know, you people will give you a
bit more time. But when you go somewhere like
New York, whatever, and you do like the open mic that that's
well, that's when you know if your material is worth anything
or not. But I was.
But I'll tell you this for you and it's this, this is true for
a lot of acts like the the the comedy scene in America,
especially New York. It is in nurturing for certain
types of our styles of acts. All right.
And you've got a very sort of unique, I don't know, it's like
it's almost silly and it's like unarming little little sort of
semi sort of they're not like hard punch lines, but to be like
a little quip on the end of something.
And that's something you developed.
But the welcome mic scene here wouldn't have allowed you to
develop like that. You would have been very much a
start and stop being all that stuff wouldn't be there.
So the fact that you were able to learn that in a different
environment is it's so much better because I've seen you
here and you kill and it's so unique to see you because you
don't have everyone else's voice.
But if you were to star in the open mics, that would have been
hit beaten out of you. And it's the same way I know Jim
Jeffries. He was able to become a
storyteller by going to the Edinburgh Fringe and doing long
stories. He would never been able to do
that in if he started in New York.
So he might never become the fucking the guy we all know and
love now today, you know? So there is benefit to being in
different places, you know, and I feel I also haven't started in
Ireland and done long sets and played in front of crowds and
got paid when I was young. I'm coming over here.
I felt that I've always had that experience behind me.
I don't know if I could have made it in New York, if I like,
I wouldn't have been made it through the process.
I'm still trying to make it, you know, I don't know if I would
have been able to had I not got that experience.
It might have just been so, so much of A miserable experience
just banging out open mics every night to put with no response to
anyone. That's a great point about great
point about the Edinburgh Fringe, about the fact that
you're doing 2530 hour long shows in a month.
Like if you're doing the open mic scene in New York, maybe
you're getting like maybe you're getting 3 minutes here, 5
minutes here. If you go to Edinburgh and
you're doing your own show and then spots, you're maybe doing
50 hours worth of stand up, which is huge.
And then you take that back every time you do Edinburgh or
like a big run of shows. I think you're always like a
better comedian after learn more about yourself and you're set.
So yeah, that's an interesting point and I think you're.
Right. There's Benefit because there's
a lot of English comics that are fucking brutal too.
And that's pretty Edinburgh Fringe's fault because they they
have nice fucking skinny jeans and Alone or any of those other
dumb agencies, send them up there and go, hey, listen, do a
fucking show about racism. It won't be funny, but they'll
stretch out five minutes over an hour.
And then they'll try to teach you that, you know, hey, racism
is a problem. And we're like, yeah, who are
you teaching this to? We all know that Dick head.
So they're terrible. Like English comics are really
bad. English comics make fucking LA
look like like fucking gods. There's a benefits to both of
them, you know, I. Could tell you that my 2021 show
is going to be called racism as a problem, so you kind of fucked
up for me. Shit man, I'm sorry dude but you
have to learn it somewhere. It wasn't me, someone else would
have said it. I think that's a great point
about learning to do stand up and then and then going
somewhere like New York, because I definitely found out quickly
that whenever I was doing some gigs in America in clubs,
Ireland is so much about storytelling.
It's so much about, you know, slightly longer bits and you're
telling tales essentially. And I was going, if I had a 7
minute spot in at a club in America, I was going in with one
story and I was like, let me tell the seven minute story 2
minutes into that. People might have lost
attention, might not have enjoyed it.
I lost their attention. I, I've started the story.
So I can't go anywhere else. So then I'm watching in
different clubs. I'm seeing that actually, if you
have like quicker punch lines, if you have like bits, it's so
much easier. So then after a while I'm like,
oh, let me change just this slightly.
And then the last time I played there I was like, this style
suits me a lot better. Quicker punch lines, not just
this like long story with a funny bit at the end.
And you're saying about like about making it like just from
the outside looking in, like things seem to have really
actually, actually weirdly, since the start of this like
pandemic, I've seen like so much more of you.
I've seen you doing loads of stuff with Legion of Skanks,
which is, you know, you say about English comedy and
probably the sort of comedians you see it live at the Apollo,
the Edinburgh Fringe. That is the sort of comedy that
people assume here that I'm into.
People will go, what do you think of this comedian or that
on the like the London scene usually I don't know because
it's not a scene I follow. I don't know.
I look at stuff like all the American podcast.
I follow Legion of Skanks a little bit.
So I know all those guys. And then when I see you on that,
then that's like, I don't know if you've been working with
those guys for a while or mixing in that scene, but I was like,
so happy for you for that because.
Thanks, man. I appreciate it.
Yeah. Because that's like, yeah, that
is like a group of well known, if you know all about the like
the newer comedy scene, the American comedy scene, like, you
know, so many of those acts. And that's a brand of comedy I
really like, which is a load of people just like not really
giving a fuck and just being funny for the sake of funny.
And it's a lot of comedy you probably couldn't get away with
in, in like the UK and Irish comedy scene, you know, it's
definitely just like it's, it's, it's more of a raw kind of
comedy. And and that's, that's brilliant
that you've managed to like get involved with those guys doing
podcasts. So has it, was there like a
point where you were like actually is maybe kicking off a
little bit? Like, yeah, like a week ago when
I got to do the leaders gangs, it was like the first time I'm
like, I think I'm in the right direction.
I swear to God. That was the first time.
Back in March, I was having a great fuck.
A few months back, up until the pandemic, I was getting past our
clubs, which you did immediately, by the way, which
I'll honestly admit, I'm so jealous of how fast you just
achieved stuff that took me years to try happen in New York.
You showed up and then next thing you know, you were just
booked at the stand for a week. And I was like, I've been
fucking auditioning and going down there and hanging out for
years. And then you were just like,
yeah, no, I just some best friends with the owner now.
Yeah, but no, but that there's a reason for that.
I mean, you might have heard my name get introduced as Russell
Hard. I just lied.
I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, listen.
That's so funny. No, listen, that's The funny
thing about New York. And so if you could, you could
probably just say you're Russell Howard and they go, yeah,
whatever. Look, this limey fuck get up
there. Yeah, that's so funny.
It's so funny too. I say, who do they see?
What's that famous comic? He's a, he's a, he's Auk guy.
He's not very good. I don't want to but.
I don't want to guess anyone. Yeah, he always.
He's a very good actor though. I forgot his name but he was in
town doing them shows. Can I can I make a guess and if
it's wrong and if he ever sees this, he'll be like why one with
the guy just all calm said was he's not very good and you
nailed it. Is it was a Jack White hole?
It was from downtown, brother. Yes, yes.
Oh, my God. We got to get into some sort of
partnership. Man, that was great.
Yeah, that was great. It was.
Telepathic. We've got that connection.
And trust me, I said an English guy is not very good.
There's thousands to pick thousands.
You got it. That was great, man.
We used to do this feature on, on radio called food phone, me
and my mate Dave, where people would call in like total
strangers would call in and the show was live and they would
hold like an item of food up to the to the phone.
And we can only hear them. We couldn't see them.
And we would try and sense what the food was just based on, you
know, we'd say things like, can you like rub it against your
forehead? Can you tap it off the phone?
And we would guess and it took me 4 weeks to get it.
And one week I was like, I feel that this might be an avocado
and the guy's like, it's fucking avocado.
So yeah, I mean, there's, I mean, that's why I got, that's
why I got past at that club. Just I didn't read their own
material. I was like, listen, I'm sensing
there's a Steve in the room. Is there a Steve in the room?
You had Does anyone have some lunch in their bag?
Who has some food in their bag and someone put their hand and
they go. It's half a Subway sandwich.
I just played that game because I'd spent all my money on
flights and accommodation. I was like, it's half a Subway
sandwich. Bring it up here.
Yeah, but we should. What we should do is eventually
when I come over, I've been talking about doing a show in
Woodlawn. So everybody was like, what you
need to do is put a show on Woodlawn because I was doing
shows in Manhattan like solo shows and, and they were great
and like a small basement venue. And but a couple of people who
came that like are from Ireland, but live in New York were like,
we travelled from like we all came from like Brooklyn to get
here. Like nobody like lives in like
the Upper East Side here. So the best thing is just put on
a show where we all live. So when it's safe to like, fly
over and do shows, we should just do that.
Maybe me, you and Katie like the the the entire New York Irish
comedy scene. Yeah.
I did, I ran a show out Woodlands.
Weird. You gotta, you gotta have a name
out there. So just past the Bronx, you
know, so that's like the biggest Irish community in New York.
And I ran a show there once. He sold like 10 tickets and he
never did it again. But I think we're you and your
following you have on social media.
You should fucking. We'll get 6 or 7 guys in having
a good time. Yeah.
Is that did you do that like real Irish comedy tour or?
No, it is not. I did not.
Get you know the one I'm talking about.
Yeah, yeah. Does it.
OK, So does originally there's a there's a tour called the Irish
Comedy or something like that, or it's called like the Irish
Kings of Comedy. And it's a bunch of fucking guys
called Flanagan from Boston, you know?
And they had that. And they bring out a Midget or a
little person who's dressed as a leprechaun and they play
bagpipes and shit. And they have a guy like, it's a
comedy show. And it's like.
Irish. Bro walking around and it's like
shipping off the Boston way. They just do jokes about being
drunk and yeah, you know. And so they had that and then
someone from LA and or out West anyway, he said, no, we're going
to do a different one called the Real Irish Comedy Tour or
something like that. And so then they organised the
tour and they went around to different places, but that's
they were really Irish comics. And then there's also a thing
called the Irish Comedy Festival that they had out in LA, in
California. So I was in like San Diego and
stuff too. So they booked a bunch of Irish
comics. And then they actually said
someone, they never invited me, right?
I didn't want to do it. I think it's hacky.
And so I would actually never do that because unless they're
paying me fucking boatloads of money, because you don't want to
be known that you want to be a comic, You don't want to be the
Irish comic everything. No matter what you do, you'll
always be the Irish comic. So you don't want to double down
on it and be the Irish fucking dumb Patty.
So eventually someone up, they said, oh, I could come down if I
pay for my own flights. And I was like, dude, I'd bury
everyone on this lineup. I would bury you.
Yeah. Like the fact that you're even
are you can even reach me right now is an insult.
The fact that you can even contact me is so upsetting to
me. I fucking hate these guys, dude.
It's about time I did legions gangs and it's about time I got
some fucking respect. Todd, I want to sell out in
Belfast. Why can't I sell a ticket?
You know what this is going to finish with?
You didn't show Madison Square Garden a year from now in an
Inter Milan full tracksuit. The Irish king of comedy.
I just completely settled out the real Irish king of comedy.
I mean, what, what I enjoy about that is this Irish comedy tour
of comedians who you know, like, like don't talk like us or
whatever. I did a show in New York couple
of years ago and they booked like an Irish comedy lineup and
it was, it was Irish Americans. And very quickly I realised you
could so easily fall into a trap of hockey Irish material.
But don't get me wrong, we'll kill like in most places, like
probably not in clubs, in like good clubs it wouldn't.
But like a functions and all that kind of shit.
It would take the roof. But it's cheating.
It's a it's not, it's not real. It's not like there's something
gross. But I mean, I think the odd joke
is fine bit of material. Definitely the first few times I
went over I was like, what's Ireland like?
But that's because I felt comfortable doing that the first
times and then the last time I was like, let me see if this
would like work if I wasn't from Ireland, you know.
But yeah, I think, I think that kind of Irish stand up thing
when that is your whole act, it's just not.
Yeah, you got to do that. I open with some Irish stuff for
like always because people and I found out that people, if I
don't mention it, they're just confused.
They always forget they're like, and afterwards people come up
people, Oh, are you Australian or something?
So I'm like, wait, so I just did 20 minutes and you didn't know
where I'm from. So the whole time they're
watching me going, wait, is he, what's what's wrong with him?
Does he, is he having a stroke? So I just open where and let
them know. But then, but it's the same like
in England, if you're a Liverpool comedian and all you
talk about is Liverpool, you're up north, that's all you talk
about. Because I remember years ago I
read a review someone in the Edinburgh Fringe and the guy got
slaughtered. Let me guess.
This guy got slaughtered. He went over and did the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival and apparently all his jokes were
just like the moon landing the only Americans could imagine if
Ireland landed on the moon and he's just gone.
Jesus, where's my point? And you know, it's just like for
so from a young age, you're just going, oh, Jesus, man.
You know what, in fairness, if I was there at that show and I had
a pint or two, I fucking laugh at that.
That, that's that. Is Irish.
We're fucking gob shites. That's the whole thing is like,
yeah, I think just the trick would be that, yeah, do a joke
about the fucking do the difference between cats and
dogs, yeah. Yeah.
Universal. There you go.
Now we're now. We're on the now.
We're on the right path. Don't be the fight.
Bring us together. Difference between cats and dogs
Difference between Irish cats and Irish dogs Irish dogs always
having a pint. Always having a pint.
Irish Cat. Your accents kind of holding up
as well, like if you've been there for six years, does it
ever slip or you keeping you keeping firm on that?
No, this is it. And this is I think this is very
American and you don't I get all my Irish friends.
Maybe it's because I'm a dub. And so you might get might not
get there, but I definitely, I definitely say a lot of like
American slang and I'm trying to be better.
Like I'm always like, awesome dude.
And well, I shouldn't have done the eyes.
That was the issue with that. Yeah.
But all my all my Irish mates say, I say I'm mad American and
all the American mates say I something sound mad Irish.
So I'm caught in this fucking place.
But I, I think it's natural to try change our voice because
it's so frustrating to have people be like, say 33, say 33
and I'm like, like a monkey dancing.
Yeah, no, I know exactly what you mean.
Have you had any, like I've been asking comedian guest this
recently because I have, but have you had any, have you had
any weird project ideas over lockdown where you're like,
listen, I need to do a web series about this and then then
realise it's never going to be a thing?
I have one of these every day. Dude, I've got a notebook of
just ideas that I will never fucking complete.
I did just think, you know what I was watching there.
I don't know if I'll ever do this either.
I was what? I was watching Naked Gun the
other day. Do you watch Naked Gun of?
Course just. Fucking hilarious movie like,
and I feel like all that type of slapstick stuff was gone.
So I was thinking I was like, me and my mate might try do like a
fight, you know, where it's like, I'm a cop, I'm a criminal
and he's a cop. And then we'll fight and I'll
just be stupid. Like he'll hit my head.
And then like my, my, like, my eyes roll around like a fucking
slot machine and all this money falls out of me mail.
And then I was just thinking, I wrote all this stuff down.
I was like, I'm never done to do this stuff.
Yeah, there's no way I'm ever done to do that.
That was my plan. Just a little sketch.
I yeah, I mean, I just have these ideas that like an idea
once where I was just trying just taste insiders.
I was like, is there a web series where I'm taste insiders?
And then I was like, I mean, probably what The thing is there
is, you know, I just want to, I just want to have a drink.
And I was like, I can do that without the camera.
You know, every every day I've got like a web series that I'm
glad has never happened. And I was like, listen, get
cameras here. Can we do something where I try
and learn how to, how to headstand, you know, headstand
or handstand? And it's just good that these
projects are, are not happening. So yeah, I want to just sort of
wrap up by asking you about like probably like your, your goals
or like, is there anything you particularly like want to do or
you someone who or you someone who just sort of takes each day
as it comes, each gig as it comes or anything I up and say
like not maybe a gig in Dublin, a particular venue or anything
like that. Yeah, I guess there's, there's
always, there's obviously big dreams, you know what I mean?
Like if I was ever to even play Vicar St in Ireland, I never
even got the open for anyone back in there, you know what I
mean? So if I was ever to even just
feature for someone back in Vicar Street, I think that would
be a big deal because I grew up there into so many shows there,
you know, and. I think that, but that's I think
that's definitely like doable because when I've seen a couple
of American comedians of X St recently, like Brooke Kreischer
and I saw Theo Von there once and especially in Dublin, more
so than here, there is a there's a big love for like the American
comedy, the American comedy that you and I like.
So I think the more you become like, you know, fix your on on
that scene and like do the likes elite like people in Dublin
would probably know like Legion is get like Lewis J Gomez.
People probably know him more than they would know fucking
Jarlath Reagan. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So like if. They have any taste?
So I think I think you would I think you would like that would
be way more impressive to be like, you know, you went away so
established somewhere else and then just like sweat back in to
do like a big a big show. I think.
And the fact that you've never even you've never done sport for
anyone there like that would be so much better to be like the
first time you play it, to just be like your thing, your show.
Yeah, maybe that would be, yeah, great, obviously.
But there's like, there's just I've got other things in the way
before all that stuff because all that stuff is like they're
nice little moments, but they don't really change the whole
they're like bells and whistles on top of stuff.
The end of the day is if you're a full time comic and you're
earning a living and you're able to support your your fucking
family doing that, like everything else is almost the
scale of it. It isn't relevant and where you
do it isn't relevant. That's like the main goal.
And hopefully if you're happy with the quality of what you're
doing, I'd rather be doing stuff that I love getting paid to do
and not sell any tickets nearly and and be popular and not happy
with myself. You.
Know so at the moment I've got my Patreon going like $100 a
week nearly. So you know that's like a
milestone. So now like I can drive because
I'm still driving trucks and stuff.
So hopefully now I can just drive a truck one day less a
week. And now, hopefully this time
next year, who knows? Fingers crossed, I might be at a
point where I can just just talk for a living, you know?
Well, I'll link to your I'll link to your Patreon in the in
the description of of this podcast.
And do you have like you have a lot of stand up on YouTube or
things like like is there anywhere you post like a lot of
stuff or people want to see some?
All my podcasts, I have a podcast called The Wizard of Pod
and it comes out every Friday. It's on YouTube, so head over
there or if you're listening to this, wherever you listen to
podcasts that should be available.
So and also just maybe keep an eye out for my name because I'd
love to get back to Ireland as soon as I can do some shows, so
hopefully me and Shane can link up.
Yeah, that's it. We could do like, you know, like
come dine with me. Like you host me.
We do a show in New York and you know, you, you prepare me some
sort of dinner. You come over to Belfast, not
prepare you some sort of dinner. We'll go home in a taxi, rate
each other at a 10. I don't know if you've seen Come
Dine with Me. I've gone quite far down the
road with this analogy. Seen it.
Yeah. So you're saying don't do any
shows, just make each other? Just have dinner, yeah?
Again, this is one of those things where it's like, maybe we
don't need to make this a show and we could just have dinner
and that's. Dinner charge people in the
watches seat. That's what that's what people
are doing these days. They just go, I can make money
rather than rather than just play PlayStation, I'm going to
have people watch we play PlayStation and then hopefully
they'll give me money to do this.
So you're on to something. Yeah, you and me and you and me
and and Nando's, you know, talking into a bit of chicken.
People pay £15 a head to watch. It's a good time.
It's been great chatting to you. I can't wait to, like, properly
see you at some point, whether I come over there or when you're
over and we'll do some comedy, we'll do some dinner.
It'll be a nice time. Wizard Wizard of pod link to
down below and yeah, calm. Cheers.
Thanks man. Congrats on everything man.
We've been watching your stuff and it's great to see you
blowing up. Appreciate it.
Thank you very much. Chat soon.