Culture That Made Me: Neil Delamere on Saul, Hamnet and Frasier

The comedian also includes The Sting and Jimeoin among his touchstones

Neil Delamere has upcoming shows in Kerry and Cork. 

Born in 1980, Neil Delamere grew up in Edenderry, Co Offaly. 

In 2004, he began performing at prestigious comedy festivals, including Edinburgh, Melbourne and Montreal, and appearing on TV panel shows like The Blame Game on BBC. 

He has presented several television documentaries, including award-winning programmes on the Vikings and St. Patrick. He co-hosts a podcast Why Would You Tell Me That?! which examines weird items in life.

He’s currently touring his stand-up show around Ireland, including Killarney’s INEC (May 3) and Cork’s The Everyman (31 May). 

• See: www.neildelamere.com

The Sting

I remember watching the 1970s movie The Sting on television in the 1990s. I was a teenager. It was a rainy afternoon. I had no expectations of what I was about to see. 

It was my first exposure to that sort of confidence trick film. I wasn’t familiar with the vernacular – the long con and the short con, and so on. It looked amazing. It has a brilliant ragtime music soundtrack. 

Robert Redford and Paul Newman looked amazing in it and they looked like they’re having the time of their lives. I was blown away by it – this heist film where everything is not as it seems.

Hamnet

I read Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell a while ago. My wife bought it for me for Christmas. Honestly, I don’t think I would have picked up a book about Shakespeare’s children in Eason’s, but I read it, and I loved it. 

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

She switches between two different plots seamlessly. I was completely glued to both tracks. It’s so skilful, beautifully wrought and beautifully written. I’m probably difficult to buy a book for, but my wife nailed it with that one.

Frasier

Frasier is unbelievable. It has sharp writing and there’s a brilliant interplay between the cast.

Obviously, it’s led by Kelsey Grammar as this snobbish/elitist man with a heart of gold and David Hyde Pierce – who played a character called Niles – is such a good comic actor. 

There’s one episode where he does about six minutes with one line of dialogue, and the rest of the scene is him trying to iron his trousers.

Better Call Saul

Better Call Saul is a perfect symbiosis of plot-driven revelations about its characters. It’s a prequel for Breaking Bad – it explains how everybody ends up where they are before Breaking Bad.

Bob Odenkirk in Better Call Saul.

You see them changing slowly because of tiny decisions. Everything is expertly plotted – how someone ends up in a completely different position than they were originally is explained without it being forced. The Canadian actor Bob Odenkirk as the lead is so good.

Oppenheimer

You can’t take your eyes off Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer. He has this intensity. Christopher Nolan is clearly an auteur, a man so on top of his game he can say to Matt Damon, who’s a proper film star, “Will you do this supporting role? It’s not a massive role.” And he agrees. 

The same to Florence Pugh. And to Robert Downey Jr.: “Will you take all the charisma that you’re known for and play against type, and be a not very pleasant person? Are you prepared to be that vulnerable?” “Yes.” They all want to work with him. The man’s a magician. I loved that film.

Kevin McAleer

A stand-up comedian I love is Kevin McAleer. Comedians love McAleer. They know how good he is, but he might be underrated by the public, or underexposed. What I love is that he doesn’t compromise. He does what he does and it’s up to you to get on board.

Kevin McAleer

 

Every line is measured and weighed out. Not a syllable is wasted. Once he sets up the character of, say, this paranoid loon being paranoid, he just plugs other stuff into it like a tourist map that says, “You are here.” “How do you know?” He does it so well.

Jimeoin

I remember learning a lesson a million years ago. I was watching Jimeoin at a big gala. It was so long – it went on for about four hours. Jimeoin was on at the end. 

In my head, I thought he can’t do what he normally does. The audience is exhausted. There’s no way he can be as low-key as he normally is. 

I was completely wrong. He did exactly what he normally does. He relied on how good the stuff was and he brought the audience to him. 

He didn’t go big or loud or shouty or physical. It was amazing to watch. I was only in my twenties, starting out in comedy, and I was like, Oh, I’ve learned something tonight.

The Miracle of Castel di Sangro

The book I give to most people is The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinniss. He’s an American guy. 

He fell in love with football during the 1994 World Cup, and moved to Italy and followed a team from a village that got into Serie B. He stays with them for a year to see if they survive.

The book has every character you would imagine. There’s tragedy, joy, shady things going on. It’s unbelievable.

The Orwell Wheeler

The Orwell Wheeler by the RTÉ Documentary on One team is a cracking radio documentary. It’s about Stephen Roche and 1987, the year he won the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and World Championship. 

In the Giro d’Italia, he made a breakaway, going against the gentlemanly rules of cycling, because he wasn’t getting proper support. He was roundly booed for the rest of the race. Italian fans threw tomatoes at him. 

He calculated that if he won the stage and became General Classification leader, they wouldn’t hoof him out of the race because it would be too embarrassing to throw out the race leader. 

He barely took enough time from the leader to wear the pink jersey. It was a matter of seconds. Life’s about tiny margins.

The Rest is Politics

The Rest is Politics podcast with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart is very good. 

Not only are they interesting presenters, it was also born in a time of chaos, with Boris Johnson as prime minister and people resigning left, right and centre. That made it. 

It was like listening to the news. You had to listen to it because of their take and their access – Rory Stewart ran against Boris Johnson for the leadership, had dealings with him, was a former cabinet minister. Alastair Campbell hung around Tony Blair for 10 years at the height of international affairs. I’ve been glued to it from the start.

The Bugle

I love listening to The Bugle, a satirical comedy podcast which Andy Zaltzman and John Oliver started back in 2007. They did it for a few years together. 

John Oliver stepped away to do his television shows, and Andy continued it with guest hosts. Andy has a brilliant turn of phrase. He’s a brilliant joke writer. It’s really good.