Dragons board Santa Ponsa trip from Leeside

ANYONE who manages to emerge from the Den with the support of all five Dragons would need to have a Corker of a business plan.

After performing just one scene from their show “Santa Ponsa or Bust” on last night’s Dragon’s Den, that is exactly what veteran Cork comedians Frank Twomey and Pakie O’Callaghan managed to persuade all five of the Dragons to stump up funding to bring the show out of Cork and onto stages nationwide. There is now talk of turning the show into a TV sitcom.

Santa Ponsa or Bust is the first of a trilogy of shows devised by the two men. The second is Surviving Santa Ponsa followed by After Santa Ponsa. The first installment was produced in the Everyman in 2006 and they been performing in Cork since.

“We found it difficult to get any promoters or venues to look at it outside of Cork,” said Pakie O’Callaghan. “We approached a number of Dublin promoters who were very lukewarm about it. We needed some form of publicity bounce in order to get a national profile. We knew the shows were good enough to make it on a national level. They were the most successful ever of those home produced in the Everyman’s history. They have done really well there.”

They did a scene from one of the shows in character before Pakie donned his “civvies” and pitched to the Dragons.

“We were looking for €17,500 for 20%. They gave us €20,000 for 25%. It was the first time ever that all the Dragons invested in one project,” he said. “It was a bit daunting going up in front of them. The whole set up is courtroom-like. But the advantage we had was that when we did the sketch they warmed to it and that made the atmosphere welcoming. They were pretty enthusiastic from the outset.”

There have been significant developments since the programme was recorded in January.

“We are starting a two-week run in the Tivoli in Dublin on May 3. We are doing a nationwide tour of 14 venues and we are back in the Everyman with a fully revamped, significantly enhanced show,” he said.

“We have used the money to redesign the show. We have brought a costume designer onboard and we are spending some of the money to promote the Dublin run.”

He said throughout the last three months a number of Dragons have kept in close contact.

“I was surprised as to the amount of hand-holding after the show was recorded,” he said. “They have given us some very good introductions to a couple of people which facilitated the national tour being put together. Without them we would have found it harder to be taken seriously.

“We see this as the big breakthrough. They are now talking about doing a television sitcom with it.”