Tommy Tiernan on Roy Keane: 'We chatted for a good ten minutes after — it was different'
Roy Keane on The Tommy Tiernan Show
There has been much talk about Tommy Tiernan's interview with Roy Keane on Saturday, and now the interviewer himself has weighed in.
Tommy Tiernan gets much praise for his ability to explore emotional depths with his surprise guests each week on his chat show, but the first guest of the new season proved a challenge for the comedian, with Tiernan at one stage exclaiming "Are you fucking kidding me?” in response to one of Keane's "guarded" answers.
Speaking to co-hosts Hector Ó hEochagáin and Laurita Blewitt on the Tommy & Hector Podcast with Laurita Blewitt this week, the comedian said the football legend was "different" off-screen.
"We chatted for a good ten minutes after the interview, and it was different," he said.
"He was very friendly."
Asked how the energy changed post-interview, Tiernan said it was like the Cork man "unclenched".
"He's a lovely man," he said. "He's also funny."
"The interview had its own particular dynamic, but it was still very interesting to talk to him, it was still fun," he said, brushing away suggestions that the interview had been laborious for him.
The seventh season of the show saw the return of a live audience for the first time since the pandemic, which many viewers thought may have taken from the intensity of Tiernan’s time with Keane as some of the one-on-one interviews in recent years were more deeply personal.
"When the audience is there... when it gets serious, the energy of the audience, it's like a pile-on, they add extra intensity."
"I think there's an argument to be made for no audience," Tiernan admitted.
