ARDAL O’HANLON

He’s kept us laughing since the 90s, as a stand-up and on our screens in Father Ted, My Hero and, most recently, Death In Paradise. Now touring the UK on his own, Ardal O’Hanlon just can’t stop showing off. He speaks to Carl Marsh.

The Showing Off Must Go On – what made you decide on this title?

I’m conscious that stand-up is a type of showing off. Back home, there’s nothing worse. When I was eight, my mother made us a spaghetti bolognese for dinner, she told me not to tell anyone because she didn’t want the neighbours to think she was showing off – it was the worst thing you could do. Yet, once you start, it’s very hard to stop. I always think I should quit while the going’s good, but I’m always pulled back. There’s an urgency about it, so much to talk about.

You do have so much material – you could make people laugh without saying a word, but do you ever get nervous?

It is the obligation of a comedian to be as funny as possible. You do put your own half-baked philosophy into it, but everything is research: socialising, crap TV, all of it. I feel like I have to work very hard, trialling things in clubs, keeping it ticking over. I used to almost talk myself out of going on stage, but part of the excitement of this job is the uncertainty – that’s part of the thrill of it.

What prepared you best for being a comedian?

Where I come from, people are deadpan, so you must have your wits about you. I always thought that life was ridiculous, and I still do. Life is there to be ridiculed, which makes, I think, comedy the most sensible way to make a living.

Can you recall your first routine? Do you find what you did funny now?

I remember it really distinctly. I could actually hear my bones rattling, I was so nervous! It was very juvenile. I did have one joke about eating breakfast cereal that I continued to use for about five years back in the Comedy Cellar in Dublin. When I started, there was no comedy scene, so me and four fellas just asked if we could use a room in the pub we drank in and it grew slowly. It wasn’t an ambitious move, I didn’t even know it was possible to have a career in comedy, just trial and error, but then I was off to London…

After such a comedic role in Father Ted, you went to a more serious role in Death in Paradise. How did you manage not to get typecast into certain roles? Did you need acting classes?

It was a big adjustment period. I did think, “will I ever escape this?” I was very lucky to get Death in Paradise, but I didn’t want to get carried away. Just because someone offers you one job doesn’t mean they will offer you another. It was doing theatre that changed me. Before, I was always seen as a comedian – then I was thrown into the deep end and had to learn very quickly. It really helped me escape my character in Father Ted. It is though, still, a mystery to me how I was cast in Death in Paradise!

I suppose it’s quite easy to have a misconception of you as a man, what’s the biggest one people have of you?

Someone actually stopped my wife in the street and asked if I was as stupid [as Dougal in Father Ted] in real life! I’m also not the loudest in the room, people expect comedians to be cracking jokes all the time. I don’t feel the need to do that. I spend enough time during the day trying to come up with them. So, people who don’t know me very well assume I am quiet and serious. When you are on stage, it’s just one version, not the only version of you.

Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, Thurs 5 Dec. Tickets: £24. Info: 029 2064 6900 / www.shermantheatre.co.uk