This much I know: Kyle Kennedy

Everybody has their issues. We’ve all got baggage.

That’s why I love my job. It allows me to become someone I’m not.

I grew up in Jefferson City Missouri. My family owned businesses and were more entrepreneurs than entertainers. I treat my career as a business: I’m the product so I’ve got to believe in myself.

My desire to perform probably comes from a need to feel appreciated. Deep down, every person wants vindication. For me, fulfilment is applause and seeing a smile on peoples’ faces, knowing my singing has affected them in a positive way.

My biggest challenge has been dealing with the constant barrage of rejection that you get in this business. Luckily, my skin got a bit thicker with each audition and every no. 95% of the time it’s rejection, and its usually nothing to do with how talented you are; it could be for something as arbitrary as having green eyes instead of brown. One day I may start a stage school and write a guide on how to become a professional entertainer.

The best advice I received was to take nothing for granted until you have a contract and a pay cheque. People talk a lot of hot air in this business and, if something looks too good to be true, it probably is.

I’m fit. I’d pass muster at a physical but my diet is horrific. I’m always snacking on sandwiches and coke. I eat a lot of pizza and smoke the occasional cigarette.

92.7% of my schedule is work.

I’ve never done drugs, I never needed to. I get enough of a rush from being on stage regardless of how big the gig is; it could be one hundred or it could be one thousand people.

My worst habit is staying up late. I need to wind down when I’ve been gigging with my band. My ears are pounding afterwards.

I don’t really get nervous anymore. I was petrified at my first open audition. I actually left the room crying, I was a perfectionist even back then. But you can overcome nerves with experience. At the end of the day it’s not brain surgery — if you mess up a line it feels like the worst thing in the world at the time, but people forget very easily and eventually you will be able to forget about it too.

I’m really hard on myself. I may sometimes come across as pompous, but that’s just to get me over my social anxiety. The second I’m satisfied with my performance is the moment I quit.

I like to talk but I’m as insecure as anyone else. I don’t like complements.

I’m a bit wary of marriage. My dad left when I was three. Each of my parents married three or four times. I know very few people who are happily married. I’d want to be 100% sure.

I pride myself on my manners. It’s much easier to be kind than to be a jerk and now I’m getting to the age when I feel comfortable calling people on it if they are rude.

Life is trial and error. When you’re younger, you tend to try and please other people but I’ve finally realised that you can’t really please anyone else before you please yourself.

Kennedy is a stage name. I had an agent who suggested I needed to change it from Prenger.

Ireland is very cultured and I like the European frame of mind. I’ve been very fortunate to have travelled to over 80 countries with my work, but I didn’t realise I’d become so Irish-ised until I went home for the first time in ages a month ago.

Kyle Kennedy stars in Beauty and The Beast at Dublin’s Helix Theatre.