Best known for his podcast Limmy's World of Glasgow and his BBC comedy series Limmy's Show, internet sensation Brian Limond has cultivated a huge following thanks to impressively honest and often controversial opinions.
In 2013, the comedian created hundreds of six-second videos (RIP Vine) which he turned into an hour-long compilation of comedy and absurdity - fans will no doubt remember the one with the spider crawling out his mouth.
Now, the Glasgow man is returning to Dublin to bring a screening of his Vines followed by an audience Q&A where fans can ask him... well, just about anything.
It seems that no topic is off the table for Limmy who spoke with RTÉ Culture about his career, his coping techniques and why Vicar St was one his favourite - and most unsettling - gig of 2017.
I'll be at the Fringe this year with Limmy's Vines, for 10 days only! Get yer tickets here: https://t.co/Soqyjx3Kt9 pic.twitter.com/DyQ5pnqfDp
— Limmy's Vines Tour (@DaftLimmy) April 24, 2018
How did Limmy's Vine Tour come about?
A couple of years ago I was asked to go to the London Short Film Festival and they said, 'we want to show all your Vines - a big compilation about an hour long - and then do a Q&A hosted by Armando Iannucci'. So I said, 'aye, definitely'.
I went and did that but then people in Glasgow were saying, 'why aren't you doing it here?'. So I thought, 'I'll do a tour' and here I am.
Are you glad, the vines are being put to good use?
I was doing all those Vines, almost every day and then I put them into a big compilation on YouTube and after that I thought, 'I just can't be bothered doing this anymore because the next compilation will be another hour, another six hundred, and I don't know if I can top the six hundred I did there'.
So by the time Vines actually died, I didn't care but all the Vines that I'm showing, it's for the era that I did care.
We spoke before your last Vicar Street gig, are you looking forward to going back?
I'm really looking forward to it because Vicar Street was one of my favourites - or the favourite - because I remember... there was something about it. It's dead loud, I don't know if it's because of the tables, all these tables are laid out with four people at a table and everyone is kind of rammed in.
It was dead close so, I don't know what to call it, it was nice and rowdy and loud and I remember thinking when it happened, 'that was definitely my favourite'.
The funny thing is... before I went on, I sort of had this panicky feeling that I don't get much these days. I was just about to go on stage and somebody said, 'oh, it's actually going to be another five minutes' so I had to go back and that was enough to get into my mind.
Something got into my mind. Something went like, 'I'm going to ruin this for you'. A wee voice in my head said, 'I'm going to make you forget everything, I'm going to make this the worst ever - this is going to be terrible'.
That happens now and again, some voice will pop into my head and try to ruin everything but it [the show] ended up being cracking, after the first five minutes I thought it was going really well.
Is it anxiety? Self-doubt? What name do you give to that voice?
I used to get quite nervous... the very first time I did stand-up, that was terrifying. Now and again, I might get a wee feeling, just this wee feeling in my belly, a kind of acidy feeling of 'oh, here we go'.
It's actually alright, you get used to it. I remember when I did my book tour, every single night went well and I remember I still had the nervous feeling, even though I knew it was going to go well - even when I made mistakes, it went fine - so it just dawned on me that this feeling is going nowhere.
That was almost a good feeling. You kind of think, what am I doing wrong? How can I conquer this? So it's good to go, 'you're never going to conquer it, you're always going to feel a wee bit nervous'.
That thing that happened in Dublin though, that was something else. I get it now and again and that's almost a kind of a dormant schizophrenic sort of thing. I've had it once or twice before where I felt almost... it's not as loud as a clear voice, a voice like people with actual schizophrenia can hear but it's something that's a lot louder than just me thinking, 'oh this is going to go badly' - it's an actual other. It's something that's against me.
I remember reading about Robbie Williams, he would get a voice in his head willing him to fail but I don't know if it's an, 'I'm going to ruin this for you'. I had that feeling for years.
Do you know the reason behind that feeling?
I don't know what the cause is. I used to get wee feelings like that when I was a teenager. It wasn't OCD [obsessive compulsive disorder] exactly but I remember sometimes I would leave the house as a teenager to go out with my pals and almost like a voice in my head would say, 'go back in and run back up the stairs and then come back out again'.
Just something like that. Not switching the light on and off forty times, not anything like that, just - 'do it'. It was almost like a dare, just not a funny dare or a dangerous dare - just a stupid thing.
It's nasty and it's happened a few times but when it happened in Dublin... because it happened quite a bit, I'm able to kind of laugh it off. In terms of getting rid of the nerves, I've got certain wee techniques.
So you're about to walk on stage, this feeling comes over you - what do you do?
I used to meditate quite a bit - I don't do it as much as I used to but my technique of meditating would be sitting on a seat, shutting my eyes and just thinking about my breathing for like fifteen minutes. Not trying to control my breathing but just thinking about it and eventually, all my thoughts go away and it's this nice relaxing feeling. I would use that technique even just for thirty seconds.
Another thing would be, I'd talk myself up in that kind of 'life coach' sort of way - I go, 'you're brilliant, you're a tiger' and all this sort of thing. Well, I'd never seriously say, 'you're a tiger' but that kind of thing, like, 'they're all here to see you, they're looking forward to it and they just want a wee night out and they're going to enjoy it and you're going to enjoy it and it's going to be good, right?'.
If that doesn't work, I go the opposite direction and I try to be really horrible to myself and catastrophise it in a sort of funny way. I'd say, 'aye, you're right, it is going to go bad. It's going to be the worst ever, you're going to forget everything, you're going to have a dry mouth and a pale face and they're going to know you're not enjoying yourself and they're not going to laugh'. I would be so bad to myself that it would start to get funny.
It seems like a lot of pressure, is there a pay off when you do get out there?
The book tour was fine because I was reading and being myself. This [tour] is fine because I'm screening the Vines and doing a Q&A after it and I'll like that the most because I get to just chat with the audience and talk. It's one of my favourite things, to just talk.
I like being creative in general. I'm just after making Limmy's Homemade Show. I like all that, making things up and coming up with ideas and making videos - that's my favourite thing to do. To make things.
People often speak about 'flow' when they're doing something creative. Do you feel like you go into a state of flow when writing or filming?
I remember somebody mentioning it and I looked it up on Wikipedia and it said that it's about doing something that's kind of challenging but you can do it well - but it's not so easy that it bores you.
That sounds to me like when I'm playing games; when I'm playing Overwatch, I'm good at it and it just fills up my mind while I'm doing it, I'm not thinking of anything else.
I'm kind of like that when I get into the habit of writing and I'm just typing and typing and typing but with editing, there's a lot of stopping and starting.
Books, sketches, stand-up - is there any other goals you're working towards?
Not really, I just want to always be making stuff. There are certain things that I'd like to do but I cannae be bothered doing, like writing a novel.
I would like to one day write a nice big novel and enjoy writing it and people enjoy reading it but I cannae be bothered or I don't have any ideas that would fill up a big book like that.
I'm writing an autobiography right now but that's kind of like short stories in a way but real stuff. I would just like to keep on making my telly stuff, videos - I love that. Maybe a film one day.
Limmy is bringing his Vines to Vicar St on Wednesday, May 2nd. Limited tickets are available now.
*Anyone struggling with mental health issues can visit http://www.yourmentalhealth.ie for support and information.
This week, RTÉ is running a special initiative on Youth Mental Health across a range of services. The Big Picture - Youth Mental Health strand aims "to shine a light on one of the most important issues in the country". It culminates on Thursday, 26 April with an hour-long TV documentary and follow-on studio discussion.
