Thy king dom come
A heavyweight of American comedy and a big hit every time he crosses the Atlantic, Dom Irrera is itching to get back to Ireland. Before he hops on the plane, the stand-up talks ping pong, lubrication and why he’s more at home here than in small-town USA.
Craig Fitzpatrick, 06 Sep 2011
A long-distance call finds seasoned Italian-American comic Dom Irrera somewhere in the Hollywood Hills, lying, as he puts it “on my couch in a beautiful comedic depression”. It’s 10am their time, 6pm over here. We’re not sure if you can get jetlag down a phone-line but a half-hour or so with the dead-pan and dead-funny Dom certainly keeps it at bay. For his part, he seems genuinely happy to shoot the breeze for as long as possible. “You know what I’m doing after this?” he says in a voice straight out of Goodfellas. “I’m taking half a Xanax and going back to sleep! It’s funny the image people have of what comedians do. Here’s my day: I go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Then I play ping pong, shoot pool…” How are his table sport skills then? “I’m pretty good. Do I play alone? Well, I don’t hang out in a ‘ping pong crowd’! To me, it’s a manly sport. Know what I like about it? You end up at the same place you started. With running, you gotta walk back and all that crap. A part of me knows that one day I’m going to be institutionalised so I wanna be the best guy on my floor at those type of games.” Surely it isn’t wise to get overly competitive with the mentally unstable. He takes this on board. “Was Tiger Woods a big story over there, his fall from grace?” Sure was. “I don’t know how Tiger did it. To think he could be concentrating on golf and have that many affairs. It’s much more impressive than just playing golf. Sneaking around like that, using all that sexual energy…”
Probably better to stay preoccupied with ping pong. Still, Dom playing solo isn’t what you’d expect. Surely a wise-cracking, sardonic wit from South Philly enjoys hobnobbing with celebs and that non-stop sunshine. “We have had the best weather all summer. Does it suit my sunny disposition? Haha! Yeah, that’s what I’m about. I’m more about the sunshine and giving then I am about comedy. If you notice in my act I don’t get many laughs. But people are always holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya’. I want to build confidence in them. After they see me I want them to think ‘jeez, even I can do that’. That’s how I’m different from other comics.”
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