Getting serious with Gearoid Farrelly. Not really.

Interview by Caroline Foran.

Ahead of his forthcoming stint in Edinburgh, comedian Gearoid Farrelly - a familiar face on Irish television - will take to the Workmans' stage for what's sure to be a belly-aching preview. Self described as "the best of all my material from the two previous shows and a bit of new stuff all squashed into the one show," this is a night not to be missed. It's been a while since Gearoid graced our comedy page with his sharp-tongued presence, so we thought we'd take some time to ask him some hard hitting (eh not really) questions.

Helloooo Gearoid. First thing's first: What is the one thing you could not live without?
My ipad. I know you're supposed to say the love of my family or some crap but seriously iPads are deaaaadly. Some people say "but isn't it just a big iphone?" ... to them people I say "yeah.. amazing...what's your point?"

"But isn't it just?" - Never mind. If there was one thing you could change about yourself what would it be?
I think I'd like to be a bit more self-assured. I think I'm a bit cautious about things. Every once in a while it'd be nice to not cross at the traffic lights or to hold up a bank.

Everyone should up a bank at least once in their life. So... do you have a 'pulling outfit'?
I don't have a pulling outfit but I do have lucky shirts. These are shirts that I wore on stage once and it went well and then tend to wear on stage over and over again. It's terrible when a shirt becomes a lucky shirt because it only ever gets worn for work. I'm not really good at clothes shopping, I tend to be an "everything-on-the-mannequinn please" type of guy.

I'm the EXACT same. Tell us one of your most embarrassing secrets.
I watch "Murder, She Wrote". Your brain is never more off then when you're watching "Murder, She Wrote". When you're asleep your brain is on standby because you're dreaming. But when you're watching "Murder, She Wrote" your brain is OFF.

Oh the shaaaame. Any romantic tales to share?
I met my boyfriend in Buskers in galway. One of my friends introduced me to him and said that I was a comedian and he was completely disinterested and just sang "comma-comma, comma-comma great big confident comedy man" which is a line from one of The Nualas songs (this was before they got back together!) and we've been together ever since.

Nawww. On a darker note, if you were to die and be reincarnated as something else, what would you come back as and why?
I'd come back as a labrador dog. They really seem to enjoy themselves. I think it's because they're a bit thick. We had one that would run towards you too fast. You'd have to get out of the way and it'd hit the back door head-first. But he was happy.

I think we should all get hit in the head MORE. What is your ultimate guilty pleasure?
McDonalds! I used to work there and I still go every so often. Also Sarah Millican has a joke about eating Galaxy and Dairy Milk at the same time. I only tried it recently. Wow!

Oooh, intriguing! Who's your favourite comedian EVER?
Ahhhhh this is way too hard. It literally changes from week to week. At the moment I really like Paul Foot, I first saw him at the Vodaphone Comedy Festival last year and then in the sugar club. He's amazing. I also really like Jim Jeffries and Sarah Millican. But I think "EVER" would have to be Victoria Wood. She's done every aspect of comedy and been brilliant at them all and was way ahead of her time.

If you had to spend the day with the Kardashians or Cheryl Cole who would you choose?
Can I just say shoot me? To be honest I don't know a whole lot about the Kardashians other then there are a few of them and they come in different sizes. I'd say maybe Cheryl Cole, she seems friendly enough. I think I'd bring her to the cinema though just to save lulls in the conversation. I have one of those faces where you can always tell what I'm thinking so I wouldn't want the conversation to turn to her songs. Also i'd insist on using the dublin pronunciation of her name. Cherddle.

Ha. All I can see now is her awkward face and your face trying to lie and failing and a big fat tumbleweed blowing by. Again to go darker, what would you pick for your funeral song?
I don't know about this one. I once said it would be something by The Twins from "Neighbours" just to confuse people. So I'd probably stick to that. I hate the way at funerals they play sad songs, it's a bad tradition. You think you're the saddest you've ever been and then they play something that makes it worse. That's a bad idea. I think at some point they should play the theme tune from "Fraggle Rock" and it should be compulsary to do the Clap-clap bit.

*CLAP CLAP CLAP* Signature dance move?
I'm not a good dancer. I used to do musicals and I would always forget the steps so I'd get put at the back. Usually I'd get partnered with a non-dancer girl whom at some point I'd have to lift and end up trapped under. If I do dance I usually do the "saturday night fever" pointy thing and try to look ironic.

If you could punch someone square in the face who would it be and why?
There's one person but you don't know them. Lucky you!! Ha... I'd never punch someone but there are people that I think "I'll have my day with". But then I'm all talk.

Most star struck you've ever been?
A few years ago I was in New York and I walked out of the box office of the Biltmore Theatre and almost bumped into Tyne Daly. She's famous for doing "Cagney and Lacey" but she is also an incredibly well respected theatre actress. I said hello and we chatted. At the time I was doing an MA in Theatre and we chatted about it and she said "what are you doing after the show?". So after the show I went back to her dressing room and we had a chat and then went for a stroll through New York. I'm still starstruck by that. I went to see her in London recently in "Master Class" which was so incredible I went back again a few weeks later. I've pitched a show to RTE called "Farrelly and Lacey" ... Waiting to hear :)

www.gearoidfarrelly.com | Workman's Club - July 4th

Story by EI Team | 09:00 | Thursday 28th June 2012 | Comedy

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