Gearóid Farrelly on Dancing with the Stars: 'What sold me was I could dance with a man'
Gearóid Farrelly with Stephen Vincent, Dancing with the Stars. Photo: Bríd O'Donovan.
There’s a giddiness in the air around Dublin’s Liffey Trust Studios.
Celebrities are coming and going, trying to stay under the radar, photographers setting up lights, videographers catching behind-the-scenes, the odd journalist snooping around.
For any fans of – and last year’s viewing figures suggest that’s around 478,000 of us any given Sunday – this spot is a lot more than your average dance studio. It’s the residence of one of RTÉ’s most successful shows. Sure, Wicklow’s Ardmore Studios might be home to the glitz and glam of the live show, but Liffey Trust is where the bulk of the hard work, sweat and tears is done.
I am here to catch up with comedian Gearóid Farrelly. The 47-year-old might be best known as the opener for Joanne McNally’s Prosecco Express tour, but he’s also got his own podcast with Eurovision winner Niamh Kavanagh (they might seem an unlikely pairing, but it works), and plenty of credits on some of Ireland’s best-known comedy shows like and
The Artane man has just been announced as one of the show’s celebrity dancers when I show up at the studio, the sound of laughter echoing down the halls.
“Nice, perfect!” his dance partner Stephen Vincent shouts. “That was good!”
Then there's a mistake, and a grunt of frustration from Farrelly, but it's quickly followed by another laugh between the pair.
In these initial days, at least, the pressure of the live show is a distant thought.
"I am just having a ball," Farrelly beams.
It's early stages, of course, and you'd expect both men to be on their best behaviour with a journalist in the room, but there really is a genuine sense of an easy-going, fun relationship between the pair.
It's a world away from the image painted by some previous contestants on the English version of the show.
The BBC’s has been embroiled in controversies in recent months, with the broadcaster issuing a report in September which addressed criticisms the show had been subjected to, including upholding six complaints from former contestants relating to verbal bullying and harassment (the most serious allegations of physical aggression were not upheld).
Did Farrelly have any concerns about the intensity of participating in a show like this in light of experiences shared by former contestants on ?
"Within a few minutes of meeting [partner, Stephen Vincent], I knew he was a really nice guy. He's caring, brilliant at his job, and kind."
Vincent hasn't stopped smiling and cracking jokes since I've landed, I acknowledge. He's also wearing a Human Collective hoody, a brand founded by Christine Buckley's son with a mission statement of promoting equality and fairness.
"Obviously it's a competition," Vincent says, "it is intense, but I've learned you get the best out of your dance with a non-dancer if they're as comfortable as possible."
"That's when you're at your most relaxed, your most natural. The trade-off is maybe it's not as good as the military approach, but I would rather [Farrelly] look relaxed and comfortable, and be relaxed and comfortable. It's an entertainment show at the end of the day, not just a dance show.”
"There is still an expectation," Farrelly chimes in. "He has an edge, he can tell me no, but there's no friction. He has a great balance of encouraging and pushing. They're two different things, and he uses them quite well."
Actually, Farrelly says, if there was anything he was nervous about coming in, it was how Vincent - a straight man married to another dancer on the show - might feel being paired up with a gay man.
"The first day rehearsing was great. I came away going, 'oh, this is great. This is so much fun'. The second day... I felt... I'm not okay with this. There was just this thing of, he's straight, I'm gay, and here I am getting right in his space. It's really touchy. Every siren in my head was going off, saying this is weird."
Why would it feel any different than Vincent getting up close and personal with a female celebrity?
"I know," Farrelly says, "but it's the classic, it's the old demons that rear their heads. Straight guys and gay guys... it bites you in the bum every now and again."
And here, we have arrived at Farrelly's primary motivation for joining the cast this year.
In the press release announcing he was joining the show, Farrelly said he felt as a young gay kid, "if I had seen two men dancing together on the television, it would have been such a relief".
"To know, this happens in the world," he continues now. "That it's an option. Growing up gay in Ireland at that time, was quite ... I didn't realize there were any other gay people. It was just so isolating."
"I was asked to do Dancing with the Stars before," he continues, "and I said no, because I don't feel I'm a showman."
"I’ve done stand-up about it, I was like, that's not for me. I love the show, I've been in the audience five times but I just...I always think in comedy, if you want a long career, know your limitations, set your parameters, and stick right in there," he says laughing.
"What sold me this year is that I was told I could dance with a man.
"When I was a teenager, I went into the ice box before I came out. I iced out with parents. I think this is a great opportunity for fathers. Mothers and gay sons, there's a window there, but I think fathers and sons, that relationship struggles if the guy is coming out. I think there's an opportunity there for the fathers to be able to go, "the only thing he should be ashamed of is his dancing", you know?"
"As a gay comedian, I did go through that phase of thinking, 'how do I help the younger gay kids' and it's just being a conversation starter."
With that in mind, he seems to suggest, an early exit or bad performance here and there won't dent the ego too much.
"I can look as stupid as I want, because the conversation still happens."
"But then you get in and start rehearsing with him," he says, gesturing towards Vincent, "and he's a really good teacher, and you kind of go, oh...."
Is there a bit of competitiveness there to come out, I wonder?
"I don’t know that I am competitive. I've never been competitive in that I want to win," he says.
Also, there's the fact that where dancing is concerned, he doesn't feel he has the best track record.
"I did musicals when I was in my early 20s. And, God, was it shocking. I did get a message from a girl that I did a panto with, and she was like, are doing ?", he laughs. "I was always in the back line."
Between Deirdre O’ Kane, Fred Cooke, Kevin McGahern and Bernard O’Shea, Farrelly has a whole host of peers and friends to go to for advice on the show, and he swears he has got nothing but encouraging words from them all.
“I spoke to Dee [O'Kane] about it. She said dive into it, throw yourself at it, and just enjoy every second, because she loved every second of it. She really, really did. By the end of it, she was in bits, she really injured herself," he laughs. "but she had a ball"
"I spoke to Kevin as well, he said, just get out of your head, don't get too stressed about it, just really soak it up."
Strangely, he says, pal Vogue Williams was training for Christmas special, while another friend, Manchester comedian Josh Jones, starting training for the same day he went into his first rehearsal.
“It’s like your mid-life dance crisis?” Vincent pipes up.
“That’s exactly it,” Farrelly laughs.
Joanne McNally, meanwhile, has very much been drafted in for driving votes he says.
"I talked to her the other night and she said 'I'm a PR girl at heart Gearóid, I'm on a mission here'. She's very much my publicist for this whole thing."
His family, naturally, will also be out campaigning for votes, though he said his mother was less than thrilled to hear the news.
"My mam loves dancing with the stars, I told [my parents] in a cafe in Phibsborough about two months ago, and they have very different reactions. My dad was like, 'oh my god, that's amazing. Are you dancing with a man? Oh my God, that's gonna be brilliant. and my mam was 'like, but that's my favorite show'. It was very clear I'd taken that away from her. I've had a big warning, don't mess this up."
Farrelly will be hoping to drum up votes himself via his show, 'Rage', which he will be touring throughout the schedule. A quick peek at the schedule reveals a hefty number of Saturday night dates, including one in The Everyman on January 18.
"Down and back, down and back," he says. "To be honest, with the price of hotels, I always went down and back.
"They've said on Saturday rehearsals, I can go first and then get on the road and do a show. Stephen was saying he thinks it's a good thing that you get your head out of it for the night before those big ones. And one thing I will say is, if you drive to Cork, do a show and drive back, you sleep."
Just as long as you aren't having nightmares about ruining your mother's favourite show. Don't embarrass her, Gearóid.
- Dancing with the Stars returns to RTÉ One tomorrow at 6.30pm.
- Gearóid Farrelly's 'Rage' tour comes to Cork's Everyman Theatre on January 18. See full list of dates at gearoidfarrelly.com/tour
