Prankster's Ball
Naked Camera star PJ Gallagher tells all on the joys of festival sobriety, random acts of heckledom and his reputation as a right prankster.
Paul Nolan, 23 Jul 2008
This month sees Naked Camera star PJ Gallagher play a trio of stand-up gigs at the Carlsberg Comedy Carnival at Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens. Does he enjoy performing at comedy festivals generally?
“Yeah, I do,” he replies. “You’ve got Kilkenny and now this one, so you kind of get used to them. And Electric Picnic always has a comedy tent, which shouldn’t work at all, but for some reason it’s just brilliant. Normally you’d think that comedy at a music festival is just going to be a disaster, and traditionally it always is. It’s always some big poxy tent, and you’re talking while everyone is just wandering around, or getting drunk cos there’s nowhere else to go.
“But at Electric Picnic, it really has a proper audience. It’s a little hidden gem in there. But I guess comedy is just so popular now that you can do these things. It’s nice as well having the Carlsberg Festival, because we now have a festival in Dublin. It’s about time!”
Does PJ get a chance to go out and watch bands at Electric Picnic?
“I do. It’s the best thing about doing the comedy there,” he chuckles. “You’re working for, like, 20 minutes over the whole weekend, and then you’re there to see whoever you want. I love Damien Dempsey, so I was delighted to see him. And I think Laura Izibor is just ridiculously amazing. She did a fantastic performance with a gospel choir in one of the smaller tents. I’d never even heard of Antony and the Johnsons before I saw them, but they were savage.
“I gave up drinking after Electric Picnic last year, because I got so wankered. I haven’t touched a drop since. I wanted to see a couple of bands, and apparently I did go and see them, but I can’t remember any of it, so that was the end of that.”
Interviewed recently in this magazine, Aussie comic Jim Jeffries talked about the occasion on which he was punched by an irate audience member. Although PJ has never been confronted himself in such a manner, he has witnessed some of his fellow comics having to deal with outraged hecklers.
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