EACH MONDAY night, a handful of crack Irish comedians assemble in the International Bar to make things up at their audience s behest.
The technical term for this unfettered ad libbery is comedy improv, an oeuvre which many regard as comedy in its purist form, but one that others see as a stultefyingly dreary Victorian parlour game. Nevertheless, the unbridled success of shows and acts such as Channel 4 s Whose Line Is It Anyway, Chicago s Second City (who number George Wendt, Dan Castellaneta and Bill Murray among their graduates ) and Dublin s own weekly Comedy Improv, prove that extemporaneous entertainment has never had it so good. Himself a longtime member of The Comedy Improv, comedian Brendan Dempsey explains the appeal.
The attraction is in the risk. It is scary. But we know each other well enough and we know what each other s strengths are and how to play to these strengths, but there s still the capacity for it all to go horribly pear-shaped. That ll happen about once every five or six shows. I d say out of every six shows we do, four are good, one is poor and one is brilliant, but that s the whole element of going out there and not knowing what it is you re going to say.
The audience comes up with a scenario and then four or five people spin it out and turn it into something entertaining. It s like risky uncut stand-up because you ve got no margin for trying things out and then going away, polishing them and coming back and trying them again.
What of the detractors who suggest that this impromptu idiocy merely affords comics the gilt-edged opportunity to show how smug and clever they are?
I don t think that s altogether fair, Brendan counters. I mean there s a lot of comedians out there who are not clever at all but they re still very smug. Ultimately, crowds love improv. Having said that, Graham Linehan (Father Ted co-writer BG) is one person I know who absolutely despises it, and yet when we were filming the Father Ted Christmas special, all the roadie priests who were setting up the stage for the awards ceremony were given license to do whatever we wanted. A lot of those improvised shots made the final edit.
When he s not busy compering the Golden Cleric awards or pretending to be a one-legged Mexican gynaecologist steering a gondola through the Australian outback, Brendan Dempsey can regularly be seen waxing lyrical from the stages of Ireland s comedy clubs. It s hard to miss him an accomplished comic with some six years experience under his belt he stands 6 6 in his socks and, at 17 stone, is built like a brick privy. Despite his enormous physical stature, however, his comedic profile is relatively low compared to those of young guns such as Tommy Tiernan and Jason Byrne. Why does he think that is?
I don t know. I am known as being a bit inconsistent because I will try and write new stuff as often as I can, he surmises. Once I do something for three and four months I tend to lose enthusiasm for it and when that happens I tend not to perform it as well. Also, I m not as easy to package as other acts. Jason, for example, as well as being a massive talent is a massively original talent with incredible neck and nerve. I think the size of a comedian s profile has a lot to do with media types, journalists and the like, who decide who it is they want to be huge and then write about those people a lot. Perhaps in my case it s because I ve been around for six years and therefore I m seen as an established comedian.
Also, a lot of my stuff is very personal, about me being 29 and single. That was very popular years ago but it s seen as being passi now. I don t look at what other people do and say to myself Oh, I must get a potter s wheel and some props and do some mad surreal slapstick stuff because that s what s popular at the moment . I love that stuff, but it s not what I do and I m not going to change my style just to get on a quiz show or to get on a chat show because that doesn t interest me. To be honest, acting is a lot more interesting to me at the moment, and writing and getting stuff produced on television. I love doing stand-up but I m not a career comedian.
29 and single? In itself an unremarkable nugget of trivia, but interesting when one takes into account the fact that 1997 saw a remarkable number of Dublin comedians relationships flounder. Mere coincidence? Or does the fact that comics are largely self-obsessed and are perceived by many to spend lengthy periods sitting alone in the dark smoking cigarettes mean that they are difficult bedfellows?
Yeah, that was a strange thing that happened last year, but no-one knows why people fall in and out of love, Brendan muses. Why do comedians and their partners seem to split up all the time? I dunno. Why does anyone split up? I suppose there has to be some sort of element where, if you are a comic, things are different for whoever your wife or girlfriend or partner is. When you look at the successful relationships for example, there s Ardal [O Hanlon] and his wife Melanie who ve been together for years. Ardal has a very high profile but has always managed to keep his private life private which is important. In the case of Barry [Murphy] and Flo [McSweeney], well, Flo s an actress and singer so their lifestyles are similar. Ditto for Sue [Collins, from The Nualas] and Kevin [Gildea]. They know what it s all about. They know the life and they keep the same sort of hours.
Interestingly, I saw the first serious girlfriend I had around a year ago, for the first time in years and she s married now. She has the job, the medical plan, the pension plan, she s index-linked with an inflationary adjusted salary, she has the nice guy as a husband who works in a similar field, she has the house, the car and she takes two or three holidays a year. That was what she wanted. I want very different things. I want that and a bit more besides (laughs).
While we re discussing the fair sex, I ask Brendan to explain the derisory number of female comedians currently operating in Ireland?
We keep them all locked in a dungeon underneath the International Bar, he replies, with tongue firmly ensconced in cheek. There s about 47 female stand-ups down there and they re all really brilliant, much better than any number of Dylan Morans or Ardal O Hanlons.
Seriously, I don t know, that s a thing you d really need to ask women. I don t know if it s because they re not as confident but I would have to acknowledge that, traditionally, comedy is a very male-dominated environment. Audiences are generally half women, or more often than not, predominantly women. A lot of the time at comedy gigs you d talk to them afterwards and they d be saying Well me and the girls come here a lot but tonight I dragged him along .
To be honest, I don t especially care if there s more female comedians, I just hope that there s going to be more comedians and if they happen to be women that s grand. n
Brendan Dempsey plays the Murphy s Laughter Lounge on Thurs 12th/Fri 13th/Sat 14th February. The Comedy Improv is on Mondays at 9pm in the International Bar.