Podcast Corner: Waffly versatile Tommy Tiernan shines as he adapts to lockdown era
Tommy Tiernan's podcasts are a regular fixture on top of the charts.
"This is how I pass the time, wafflin' in an unchallenged way," Tommy Tiernan says halfway through 'Fear', the most recent episode of his titular podcast.
Tiernan has been making a living out of his own acclaimed form of wafflin' for decades, from renowned standup sets to his critically acclaimed Saturday night chat show on RTÉ. And when the standup tours were halted due to Covid-19, Tiernan found himself hooking up with his old pal Hector Ó hEochagáin to start The Tommy and Hector Podcast last September. We've covered that show already and it's continuing with its jovial, down-the-pub conversations.
It obviously gave him a taste for podcasting - and he must have been missing the riffing he gets to do with standup - as, in December he launched The Tommy Tiernan Show. Both podcasts have been regulars at the top of Apple and Spotify's charts since.
"It's just me talking, it's standup without a crowd, standup without actual jokes," Tiernan explains in the trailer for his newest show. With episodes clocking in at little over 20 minutes, subjects so far have included language, sisters, Yiddish folktales, and stomachs, to name just a few, and you can hear his thought process at work, revelling in a slowly unfurling tale, such as at the outset of 'Anger', about a woman "with a fierceness in her" encountered on a silent retreat.
Ever since his first DVD, Tiernan's love of trad music and the session has been evident ("You don't know how you arrived here but you're fucking delighted") and it's a subject he revisits here, on 'Trad', perhaps the best episode of the nine so far.
"It lifts my spirits - it's almost like it teaches me how to be Irish," Tiernan says of the genre - and then blink and you'll miss it, he's talking about the Israelites leaving "wherever the fuck they were" at the beginning of the Bible, just before Moses. It's off-the-cuff, hilarious, deep, and Tiernan at his finest.
Regular Examiner Sports columnist Mike Quirke says he's got a lot more extra time on his hands in recent times due to the ongoing pandemic and so has recorded a short series of podcasts, asking people to donate to Temple Street Children's Hospital if they enjoy it. Focusing on the area of coaching, he's reached out to other coaches in the GAA and other sports to pick their brains to look for ways to improve.
The first episode of The Mike Quirke Podcast is out now, with guest, basketball coach Rus Bradburd.
