This much I know: Gearóid Farrelly, comedian

Wed, 02 Sep, 2020 - 13:33

Hilary Fennell

I started doing standup in secret. I was doing a degree in Business Studies but left after the diploma to do a Masters in Theatre Studies. That opened my mind. I did amateur plays and musicals in college and progressed onto doing one-man shows. Then I began writing my own sketches and when I was offered a spot at an open mic night I thought, why not?

I hope nobody has a recording of any kind of that first stand-up gig — that’s my worst nightmare. I used to play these terrible characters. I wore a polo shirt and a woolly jumper that night and, as I actually went down pretty well and because I’m superstitious, I insisted on wearing the same outfit for countless gigs after that, even though it was often so boiling that I thought I’d die.

I improved and eventually got into the finals of So You Think You're Funny and won the Bulmers Nuthin' Butt Funny Comedy Award, in 2008.

I’ve spent lockdown at home in Ringsend in Dublin. It’s been very strange. I was in the middle of a tour with Neil Delamere. We had to stop — and my own tour and all the summer festivals were also canceled.

The upside is I haven’t had to be on the road four nights a week.

I write some material every day but my workday is never structured. My rule is that 'nothing is ever too personal or too stupid to jot down in a notebook'. You never know when you might use it.

I did an office clear-out recently and was shocked at the number of notebooks.

My biggest challenge was being bullied in school. But if you were a gay kid in 90s Ireland that was par for the course. The schools weren’t interested in helping me. It was survival of the fittest. It did take its toll but you have to make a decision to move beyond something like that.

There’s no doubt that it made me live more in my own head which is where all creativity comes from so some good did come of the experience.

If I could change one thing in our society I’d get rid of social media. It makes people become completely devoid of empathy.

My idea of misery is being too isolated.

The personality trait I look for in friends is simple decency.

The thing that irritates me most about other people is having a joke at any expense.

If I could be reborn as someone for a day I’d be Mick Jagger.

Supporting Joan Rivers in Vicar Street is one of the highlights so far. I was shocked that she seemed really nervous beforehand because she’d just been on holiday and hadn’t gigged for a while. She was 79 and I was thinking — why is she doing this?!

The best advice I ever received was from my granny: don’t make money your god.

It’s particularly apt now that the idea of earning proper money is so remote.

I was a programmer for years, if I cannot make a living from performing for the next few years, I can always do a refresher course in programming.

My biggest extravagance is buying vinyl and CDs online.

My biggest fault is that I tend not to put myself forward enough. That has always been my problem career-wise. I don’t know where that comes from. I wouldn’t say I am a massively confident person.

The best skill I have is that I never dismiss anything as potential for material. I don’t waste my ideas.

I didn’t believe in an afterlife until a friend passed away two and a half years ago. Now, the idea comforts me. It helps me get my head around the grief and the panic at never seeing her again.

My upcoming show at the Dublin Fringe Festival sold out in a day or two. That was a relief as we’d worried that people might simply have lost the habit of going to gigs.

The biggest lesson in life so far is that you can’t take anything from granted.

Gearóid Farrelly was to perform in Dalymount Park as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival, but to adhere to new Government restrictions for outdoor events it’s just been cancelled — however, all other festival programming remains in place with rigorous adherence to safety protocol.