Sometimes, I get to do some pretty cool things. Other times, I get to clean the bathroom, do the ironing and feed the five thousand, or Helen, as she prefers to be known. Last week, I got to interview Ardal O’Hanlon; I’m counting that as a pretty cool thing, just to be clear.
If you’re around my age – a fact you can’t make me disclose – you’re already humming The Divine Comedy’s Songs of Love because of course he was Father Dougal McGuire in Father Ted. Of course he was; we all know that. I’ll pause here for you to regale the person sitting next to you with your favourite Father Ted moment – I’ll bet it’s: “these [cows] are very small, those [cows] are far away”.
Well, get over it folks, that was fifteen years ago. Fift. Een. Years. I can see you shaking your head – I know, you’re older now, it’s a terrible shame.
Right now, Ardal is beginning a stand-up tour which will soon be heading north to a town near you. When we spoke, he had already done two preview nights to test out his material, which he described as “a bit nerve racking”, but “all very positive so far”.
In fact, the general impression I took away was one of modesty, and not the false kind. Whether we spoke about his achievements to date (Ardal explains away his part in the founding of the International Comedy Cellar in Dublin as a natural extension of his and his friends attempts to make one another laugh and his TV work as a “bonus”) or his stand-up comedy (which he describes as the “day job”), Ardal was… shit, what’s another word for modest? Self-effacing? That’s two words. Moderate.
The theme of the tour is life, which encompasses all manner of things from Ardal’s own life and how he relates and reacts to the world around him. His style is anecdotal and observational and he has been described as: “original and offbeat”, comprising of “offbeat observation, lateral thought and cheerful fatalism” and “a relaxed and assured performer”. You’re in safe hands then.
If you do go to see Ardal’s show (and I think you should)(because I’m going)(and I need someone to sit by), don’t go with Father Dougal in mind. Father Dougal would be rubbish at stand-up because: (a) he’s not a real person; and, (b) he’s a bit dim. Ardal is far brighter: he cites Hemingway, Joyce and Beckett among his many heroes and he doesn’t need perspective explaining to him with Playmobil farm animals.
Don’t rush off to check for tour information yet, I have the pertinent dates right here for you: 9 October – Leeds City Varieties, 16 October – Harrogate Theatre (this is part of Harrogate’s comedy festival which is well worth checking out), and 18 October – Huddersfield’s Lawrence Batley Theatre (which, FYI, is haunted).
What else do you need to know about Ardal O’Hanlon? Not too much, according to him. So, we’ll go with what I think is interesting: he’s been in Doctor Who and Skins, he was the voice of Robbie the Reindeer, he wrote and presented a TV series which investigated football rivalries in various European countries, and he’s written a novel called Talk of the Town for which he received tremendous amounts of praise from far more influential folks than me – like USA Today: “A dazzling dark comedy.” And the NME: “O’Hanlon’s grasp of dialect and teenage concerns is spot-on. And very funny. 9/10.”
Oh, and he’s a Leeds United fan.
Praise for Ardal O’Hanlon cribbed from: www.beyondthejoke.co.uk, www.telegraph.co.uk, and www.theguardian.com