Damian McGinty on the untelevised judges comment that gave him 'the fear'
Damian McGinty and dancing partner, Kylee Vincent
Brooke Scullion is the “obvious” one to beat after the opening episode of , but Damian McGinty says his time on taught him the most talented person isn’t always the one that walks away with the big prize.
The Derry-born singer and actor was speaking ahead of his return to the dancefloor this weekend after his fellow Derry native Brooke Scullion achieved the highest opening score in the history of the competition last Sunday.
“She was just something unbelievable at the weekend. She looked like a professional dancer.
“I was watching that going, if I didn't know any better I'm not sure I would know who the professional is here,” he laughed.
Damian, who took on the tango, found himself in the top half of the leaderboard, tied in fifth place with comedian and TV presenter Kevin McGahern.
"What you saw Sunday was honestly, very little talent,” he said, “it was just complete hard work.
“As long as I'm here, that's the only thing that's gonna get me through.”
From the moment the 30-year-old had been announced for the competition, however, he had been pegged as a front runner, owing to his time on American TV show , known for its all singing all dancing (but mostly singing) performances.
“I had to dispel that rumor very, very quickly,” he said. “That just because I was on that I could dance. That is truly not the case. I've made a promise to myself that I'm gonna stop saying, I can't dance. But, normally in regular life, I can't dance well at all.
"But I'm going to change 'I can't dance' to 'I just really struggle to move well.'"
But despite his lack of natural talent when it comes to moving his feet, McGinty, who has been travelling the world as a performer since the tender age of 14, said he has “no interest in going home”.
“I love challenging myself. I especially love working at things that that I'm not particularly great at.
“Sunday night went really well, but Monday morning was a big reset. Monday on , mostly people have a day off, but I called Kylee and I was like, ‘I'm really sorry that I'm your partner this year but I want to be in at 8am tomorrow morning because I'm doing a salsa on Sunday night and I don't even know what a salsa looks like.’"
“I would love to stay in this as long as I possibly can,” he said. “I'm curious to see how far hard work can take you in an experience like this.”
"What I have learned in these experiences, in particular, .. 40,000 [people] entered that show and I ended up winning that.
“I didn't win that because I was the most talented person that entered the show. It's a mixture of a million different elements. It's never really about who's the most talented.
“So, what I can focus on is going on my own journey, trying to get better. And then we'll see what happens.”
Asked whether there is any dance in particular he’s looking forward to getting stuck into he said, “looking forward to a dance is not the correct terminology for me”.
“It's what I'm least looking forward to,” he laughed.
“Last weekend, two things gave me the fear, worse than I already had it. The first thing was hearing about the Samba, 'the celebrity killer.' And then, during the dress rehearsal, we did the tango in front of the judges.
“The judges were just kind of giving throwaway comments, and Lorraine said 'as everybody knows the tango is the easiest dance on DWTS'
“I remember standing there, looking around me thinking, if that's true. I am in serious trouble.”
- airs Sundays on RTÉ One at 6.30pm
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