Irish comedian David Nihill: 'Palestine is a room-turning issue'
David Nihill is at the Everyman in Cork on Saturday. Picture: Andrew Max Levy
David Nihill is riding high. The Dublin comedian is the biggest-selling Irish comedy act in the United States, having emigrated there over 20 years ago. He packs them out at Irish American festivals. A weekender like, for example, the Dublin Irish Festival in Dublin, Ohio can draw up to 100,000 people. Many of them deluded about their ancestors’ homeland. Nihill loves adding pepper to the fun, a comic who never shirks from telling his hosts how it is.
“So many of them are third or fourth generation Irish,” he says. “They’re removed from the idea of what modern Ireland is – versus some ideas and traditions they're celebrating from 100-odd years ago – that when I tell them we had a half-Indian gay leader or we just elected our third female president, they think that's the punchline.
“I was telling a festival organiser about Leo Varadker being in charge in Ireland and how it was interesting that it didn't make headlines that he was a half Indian gay dude, anywhere but Ireland. This guy was like, ‘For this festival, we're going to need somebody less liberal.’
“He had the buzz, military American haircut and he had big tan lines where he had been wearing sunglasses recently. His name was Chuck or Chip or Chad. I try and flip all the stereotypes back on them, which are normally linked to drinking in some capacity, like, I say, ‘Stop blaming your Irish genes for your poor drinking.’”
Nihill is particularly fearless in discussing Palestine and Gaza during his stage shows Stateside, which doesn’t always endear him to a room.
“I had someone drawing Hitler moustaches on my posters a couple of times after shows, for referencing Palestine. I’ve had them walk out of shows. It's a room-turning issue if you talk about anything along those lines. It's been in every show I've ever done for the last two or three years,” he says with a chuckle, drawing pleasure from tackling uncomfortable topics head-on.
Nihill is back on home soil for a nationwide tour. As a returning emigrant, he misses the conversation element to life in Ireland.
“I was getting money out of a cash machine. Some fellow started talking to me. My first reaction was, why is this guy talking to me? Is he trying to steal my money? That is in my head from America, but it wouldn’t be in my head in Ireland. Every time I'm walking in the hills outside of San Francisco, I sarcastically go to passersby, ‘Hello, good morning. Have a great day.’ They don’t say anything. They pass you in silence. Whereas in Ireland, there’s never a wasted moment for a conversation or a smart-arsed comment or a quick gripe that’ll make someone laugh.
“I was in Keem beach in Mayo, outside of Achill. This lady came up to me: ‘I’d like to warn you there's a naked man down here today.’ I said, ‘Well, thanks for the heads up, but to be honest I wouldn't have been looking for him.’ She's like, ‘Well, I tell you, he has nothing to be proud of either.’ She just walked off, having dropped the greatest one-liner PSA [public service announcement] in history, and she didn't even think she was being funny. That's the nature of a country where everybody is funny.”
During his Irish tour, he’ll be performing in Cork. His dad, who’s from Co Clare, might be cajoled into joining him on stage – “If he’s up for it,” says Nihill – as his father owes a special note of gratitude to Leesiders.
“My dad did a deportation interview in America at one stage. They were throwing him out of the country. He got pulled into a building next to the Twin Towers in downtown New York City. He knew he was getting kicked out, so he had his bag with him ready to go. Back in the old days, they'd summon you in.
“He was nervously trying to find a way to connect with the guy interviewing him. He said, ‘Do I detect an accent?’ It turned out your man was from Cork. My dad, who's fond of singing, but is in no way a professional singer, said, ‘Do you mind if I sing a few bars of The Banks of My Own Lovely Lee?’ He said, ‘That would be fantastic.’ My dad stood up and sang the whole song; he loves singing that song. The guy gave him six extra months in America.”
- David Nihill is touring his comedy show Taking Tangents in Ireland, including Cork’s The Everyman, 8pm, Saturday, October 3. See: davidnihill.com
