More glee, vicar?

First they called it alternative comedy, then they called it the new rock ’n’ roll, then they stopped calling it. Whatever moniker you’d like to designate it, what’s undeniable is as we head into 2004 is that stand-up performance is now big business. Over the past 12 months, Tommy Tiernan, Dylan Moran and Jon Kenny have all enjoyed extended residencies in such cavernous venues as the Vicar St. and the Olympia, whilst a scores of smaller clubs around the capital have also been doing bumper business.

The latest comedian to undertake a prolonged stretch at Vicar St. is former D’unbelivable Pat Shortt, the immensely popular Limerick native whose brilliant blend of character-based humour and virtuoso audience interaction has seen him become one of the biggest box office draws in the country, as well as a sure-fire winner on the home-video market. Indeed, Shortt’s latest DVD venture, Live… And A Bit Dangerous, is certain to give the current all-time biggest selling Irish video a serious run for its money over the festive season.
The release Live… is hoping to displace? Why, D’unbelivables’ D’Telly, of course.
“Y’know, it’s strange, comedy is now very much the big thing, but it certainly wasn’t that way when we started out,” reflects Shortt, sitting in a meeting room in the Sony offices in Ballsbridge. “It’s amazing the disparity between the two eras, when you now see Jon doing a week in Vicar St., Deidre O’Kane doing seven nights, and Tommy Tiernan doing 14 nights. I myself have done, cumulatively, about five or six weeks there over the past year. I remember when myself and Jon first started out, we’d ring up places and say, ‘We’re two Irish guys, we perform our own stuff, we’d love to try it out in a theatre’. And people just weren’t interested. This was late ’80s/early ’90s.
“Then gradually through the advent of the comedy clubs there was a more of a forum for people from the domestic scene to at least get in there and try their material out on an audience. For a long time you wouldn’t have even been allowed to set foot inside a theatre if you were an Irish comedian, but thankfully things have changed big time in that regard.
“It’s been really wonderful to see how the comedy scene has become so diverse and interesting over the past 15 years, and in that way it’s perhaps eclipsed even music. I mean, you don’t see too many bands doing two-week residencies in Vicar St!”
Perhaps that’s because there’s always the possibility that even the best bands might have an off-night and play a stinker, in which case you’ve just seen anything from E30-50 go straight down the drain. Are you allowed the luxury of an off-night as a comedy performer?
“Not really, no,” Pat replies. “Because it’s such an intense and full-on way of performing, I don’t think you could get away with it. Even if you’re not in the mood, you have to grasp the nettle and throw yourself into it. Like, I couldn’t really go on and just go, (adopts oddly hysterical deadpan tone) ‘Here’s some observational gags I wrote blah blah blah – now fuck off’. (Pause while interviewer and interviewee crack up laughing). Although, I don’t know, maybe that might be better than the actual show!”
Live… And A Bit Dangerous intersperses (predictably hilarious) footage from Shortt’s recent Irish tour with a number of quirky sketches that run through a variety of styles, from off-kilter provincial character studies to 1920s Charlie Chaplin pastiches. The characters are also rich and diverse: oddball traveller siblings the Connors’, a pompous Garda, and of course the truly terrifying proto-Jackie Healy Rae creation, Maurice Hickey. As with most character actors/comedy writers, the majority of Shortt’s inspiration comes from real life.
“I do love seeking out inspiration both in my locale in Limerick and at home in Tipperary,” Pat acknowledges. “You do meet great characters, although I wouldn’t by any means claim that we have an exclusive claim on the best characters; I don’t take the rose-tinted glass view of the countryside – you do meet some awful people too, it’s the same everywhere I suppose. Also, people have this weird impression that comedians just go to the pub and bang, there’s your sketch. It really doesn’t happen like that, in my experience interesting people are found in the oddest places, not just where alcohol is consumed. But if you have a healthy take-it-or-leave it approach, there is inspiration to be found, definitely.”
Shortt himself would also appear to harbour ambitions to become the Jack Warner of North Munster, as he has recently completed work on a purpose-built film studio just outside Limerick city, where all the interior sketches for Live... were shot.
“That’s been an amazing development,” he nods. “What’s so great about it is the freedom it affords. I can shoot all my own stuff there without any outside interference. I’m developing a feature film at the moment, and we’re also working on a sitcom for RTE, which we’ve just got the go ahead to write. I mean, when I was on that two year break and I was waiting to see how Jon’s situation would resolve, that was a scary time for all sorts of reasons and I don’t ever want to go back there. But now the production company is up and running and the live shows are selling, so it’s a really exciting time. I’m itching to go and get stuck into those projects.”
And Hoot Press, for one, can’t wait to see them.

Pat Shortt: Live… And A Bit Dangerous is out available now on video and DVD from Sony