The Bookshelf with Ryan Tubridy review: A riot of laughs with John and Francis Brennan in Cork
Ryan Tubridy on stage with Francis and John Brennan during The Book Shelf Live at Cork Opera House. Picture: David Creedon
★★★★☆
It is a packed Cork Opera House for a live podcast about books and there are whispers of doubt pre-show from the crowd — it seems half of the audience are avid readers, concerned there won’t be enough bookish chats, while the other half don’t really read, but have turned out with much curiosity to see the man on stage. By the interval, both halves have breathed a sigh of relief.
It is, of course, The Bookshelf with Ryan Tubridy, the former host of The Late Late Show, who is bringing his popular podcast on the road.
The show is structured in two parts, and for the first half Tubridy is solo on stage, batting about some anecdotes, riffing a little with the crowd and answering some audience questions provided via QR code — and unsurprisingly, he handles it all as expertly as you’d expect from a former 14-year host of a live TV chat show. He is a natural showman, as any previous viewers can attest, and at times it feels more like a gentle stand-up gig than a night about books.
We get some insight into his marriage to Dr Claire Kambamettu, who was consulted earlier that day on a fashion emergency over FaceTime when Tubridy realised he forgot the shirt he’d ironed and got her blessing to wear a t-shirt under his navy jacket on stage. “She sent me a follow-up text to say, ‘if I saw you across the bar and didn't know you, I’d give you the eye’.”
Some of the questions touched on his chat show days, and, given his CV, name-dropping is unavoidable. We hear about the day he went for a drink with Russell Crowe and bumped into Sinéad O’Connor, the only word Queen Elizabeth II said to him, the time Michael Bublé met his mother, and a surreal experience he had in Washington with Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams.
A self-described political anorak, he shares a few thoughts on Donald Trump and has some kind words for how Britain’s King Charles has been conducting himself on his visit to America: “As a proud Irish Republican, I thought the king of Britain did a great job,” he says.
Cork is among the bigger venues on the tour and at one point he quips, “I haven’t performed in front of an audience this big since the Oireachtas”. Well, that’s the elephant in the room out of the way, but not for long — the RTÉ payment scandal is brought up one too many times and doesn’t always land well with the audience, who are otherwise receptive to the anecdotes flying about on stage.
It is about 30 minutes before we properly touch on the topic of books, thanks to an audience question, and it sets off a ripple of whispers among the highly engaged crowd. Nothing scandalous — everyone is sharing their suggestions for similar reads and how they rated the books Tubridy mentions.
If part one is a touch subdued, it is more than compensated for when the Brennan brothers arrive on stage with Tubridy for the second act. John and Francis are an absolute hoot and have the crowd in tears laughing. From schooldays tales (like questionable milk bottle storage from a ‘big bosomed’ teacher and John being “illiterate in four languages” according to their mother) to wild stories of celebrity guests from their Park Hotel days, and shows they’ve seen (Francis was ”completely lost” at Hamilton he says, describing it as “rapping and leaping and jumping”), this is the Brennans like few have seen them: unencumbered, unfiltered, and unbelievably funny.
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The podcast structure asks guests to talk through three books that have shaped their lives: one from their childhood, one that made them cry or filled them with joy, and one that changed their lives. Francis steps up to the mark with his three picks, all of which receive murmurs of approval from the well-read audience, while John speaks about the two non-fiction books he has enjoyed. He describes how his dyslexia makes reading a challenge, comparing what he sees on a typical page to the jumble of a word search puzzle and how he finds fact more enjoyable to read than fiction.
John adds that his dyslexia helped him later in life with problem-solving and alternative thinking skills. “Dyslexic people always think left of centre, right of centre, to manoeuvre their way through life without getting caught.” Tubridy says John’s participation in a book podcast is important. “This show is about storytelling, not just reading and books,” he says.
The brothers also speak about life after selling the Park Hotel and how they’ve never regretted it, which sparks an interesting comment from Tubridy: “I left because I was tired, and I've had enough. I loved it while I was there, but I had enough, but this the first time in three years, and I'm sitting here talking to you, thinking ‘I do miss it a little bit’.”
Mere moments later, before exiting the stage, John whips out a saxophone and plays the opening bars of the theme tune. “I’ve never played the saxophone, but now I can say I played the Cork Opera House,” he says of the moment, so cheers of delight from the audience.
A brilliant way to end a warm, engaging, often-riotous conversation, with Tubridy summing up his Cork visit best: “This has been really special.”
