The 'Arf Of The Matter
Having left Ireland a decade ago, Dara Ó Briain has become a force in UK comedy. On a quick visit to the auld sod, he talks about bringing his love of phsyics to the stage, the vogue among younger comics for gratuitously offensive gags and why standing in front of an audience telling jokes will always be at the heart of what he does.
Roisin Dwyer, 04 Jan 2012
“‘Why don’t you suck Cameron’s rod you non-Irish cunt?’ That’s an actual tweet!” laughs Dara Ó Briain. The ex-pat comedian is sitting in The Shelbourne Hotel with Hot Press discussing such pressing issues as national identity, Ireland in the 21st century, the current state of comedy and rape by a giant rabbit. But more of that later…
The comedian is on a two-day trip which sees him host the Eircom Spider Awards, attend to several interviews and appear on The Late Late Show. Despite his packed schedule he is faultlessly polite and chatty with a remarkably quick mind and rapid-fire pace of speech.
Having moved to London ten years ago Ó Briain has become one of the most recognisable comedians on the UK circuit. He is the beloved host of Mock The Week, regularly appears on our screens on The Apprentice: Your’re Fired, Stargazing Live, Three Men In A Boat and sundry gigs as panellist on far too many quizzes to register them all. Then there’s his hectic tour schedule.
Although the UK has been his home since 1991, he has little doubt as to his nationality.
“Oh, I’m still very, very Irish,” he asserts. “I find it actually slightly irritating on Twitter when people go, ‘Sure you’re only a Brit now’, which I think is a bit weird. I am still very Irish, I still speak the language. I am not here day to day and I also don’t feel I should vote, because I think it would be inappropriate for ex-pats to vote, I am against that.”
Our interview coincides with Michael D.’s inauguration and Ó Briain expresses his delight with the result. He followed the race closely and admits he “did some urgent tweeting which I feel you must in these situations!”
As a London resident, he also watched the Queen’s visit with keen interest.
“We’ve never seen her smile in all the years I have been in England, and she was beaming from ear to ear here,” he grins. “The thing that was most striking was she was smiling, then a week later Obama was smiling during his visit and the day after that Obama met the Queen in London and neither of them were smiling. We just seem to have an anti-authority undercurrent to our form of pomp which comes across very, very well.”
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