Quantity over quality
O'Hanlon's dismay at Irish stand-up
Standards are slipping in Irish comedy because there are too many stand-ups tackling too few subjects, Ardal O'Hanlon has claimed.The Father Ted star started in stand-up when there was virtually no comedy scene in Ireland – but he says the explosion in the number of new comedians has done nothing to improve quality.
‘There are hundreds of them in Ireland and keeping material original is pretty hard,’ he says.
‘Most comics think about the same sort of crap, watch the same TV shows and read the same books.
‘They are also coming from a very similar area and mindset so they tend to touch on the same topics. They don't think outside the square and they need to.’
O’Hanlon also told Australia’s National Nine News that he was now concentrating on a return to stand-up, rather than his TV career.
‘I really missed the live dimension, that immediate excitement you get from doing stand-up,’ he said.
‘I also missed the idea that it's so personal ... it's really about engaging, about the world around you. It's like going down a mine and coming up with these comedy nuggets. Stand-up is where it's at for me right now.’
O’Hanlon is playing in the Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne International Comedy Festival next month.
Published: 15 Feb 2007
