Podcast Corner: Laughs with Oliver Callan and the killing of the leprechauns
Oliver Callan's new podcast is Killing Leprechauns.
“The only thing I know about Ireland is that it’s pronounced ‘O Breen’, and not O’Brien,” comedian Rhys James tells Oliver Callan on the satirist’s new BBC Sounds show, Killing Leprechauns.
“An Irish comedian you’ve never heard of,” Callan tells the prospective British-facing audience of the podcast, he’s here “to challenge stereotypes, misconceptions, and potentially ignorant views about Ireland and the Irish in Britain with a couple of British comedians”.
Reading out what sounds like a basic Wikipedia entry about Ireland’s makeup of president and taoiseach, Callan tells James and Glenn Moore on the first episode that they are indeed “Mick ignorant”; Moore soon wonders “which bit of this will get me cancelled”, to which Callan tells him not to worry: “I don’t think the Irish people have managed to cancel anyone for making fun, and that’s also a general problem because when we get mad at something, you don’t even notice.”
Other guests across the season — six 30-minute episodes of gentle ribbing and guffaws — include Sunil Patel, Amy Gledhill, and Josh Jones, all up-and-comers eager to earn a laugh. The series concludes with what Callan calls the “happiest day we’ve ever had” as a nation: May 22, 2015, when the marriage equality referendum was passed and Eurovision was on.
Comedians with their own podcasts go hand-in-hand — we’ll call it the Marc Maron influence, after his show WTF show started in 2009.
began An Irishman Abroad in 2013 — it recently celebrated its ninth anniversary, Regan recalls editing (or trying to) the inaugural episode: “I was like this shite surgeon hacking away at a healthy person hoping good that might result.” Joanne McNally is the undoubted superstar of the genre. My Therapist Ghosted Me, which she presents with Vogue Williams, was on the main stage of Electric Picnic last month and has two dates at the 3Arena in November 2023 (!) which will likely sell out soon.
recently made the news pages for comments made on The Tommy, Hector, and Laurita Podcast, which always sits pretty at the top of the various charts. He said the Government could “give what’s needed if they wanted” regarding overseas development aid, which prompted responses from Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney. It may be a bantercast, but people are always listening.
began in March 2021, a few months after the satirist’s Sunday morning show on Today FM was axed. It features interviews with an eclectic mix of guests, from former GAA star Oisín McConville to Daithí Ó Sé to most recently Clelia Murphy, who played Niamh Cassidy in Fair City for 22 years.
