We sat down with funny woman Catherine Bohart ahead of her new tour Lemon coming to Ireland. Watch the interview in the video above.
Catherine Bohart might just be the most well-known Irish comedian that you've never heard of.
She's gone viral thanks to BBC2's The Mash Report, she (almost) got proposed to on Comedy Central's Roast Battle, she's killed on E4's 8 Out of 10 Cats and stunned on The Guilty Feminist Podcast. But rarely has she played on Irish soil.
Now, having built an impressive career abroad, the Dublin woman is bringing her finely honed comedy skills back home to Ireland.
"I've gigged in Dublin very rarely," says Bohart. "I've done the Vodafone Festival and the Kilkenny Cat Laughs and that's it really. This is the first time I've brought my tour show to Dublin so I'm really excited."
"It will be nice to play to people who understand the same reference points as I do," she adds.
"I feel like the difference is that Irish audiences are quite comedy literate. I think it's a big part of our culture so we've kind of imbibed it for a long time. Also, in general, if English people heckle at all, it's with an insult whereas Irish people with a better story," she laughed.
Despite being a talent on the rise, the comedian insists that she never saw herself as the 'class clown' in school and would often be found with her head in the book or practicing for an upcoming debate.
"I wasn't a funny kid, I was just sort of a weird kid," she smiled. "I was surprised that I was into comedy but then I spent my entire time in school and in college debating so I think that's where I learned to value my own opinion or at least to think that I had one."
These days, of course, Catherine is deeply enmeshed in the comedy scene. Not only has she ditched the day job to make stand-up her full-time career but she is living with her girlfriend, fellow comedian Sarah Keyworth.
Two comics under one roof, what could possibly go wrong?
"My poor mother, she had the hat bought," laughs Catherine, discussing her joke proposal on Comedy Central's Roast Battle. "The nice thing is that a lot of people have those kinds of relationships where you're actually, most of the time, very cruel to each other and it's nice that people got it," she smiled.
As for dating someone in the same industry, Bohart insists that it rarely becomes a problem in terms of landing jobs but they do sometimes have to race to the stage to lay claim to a funny moment that happens at home.
"In terms of material, we have different attitudes. We're different comics so what we care about is different but I think that, where I would be like 'cool, this thing happened to both of us, maybe we should see who it suits best', Sarah is more of the 'I have a gig tonight so I'm going to get on stage and say it' mentality.
"She likes to go with the international rules of dibs."
Thankfully, the comic had dibbed all her favourite material for her new show Lemon where she will discuss the perceptions of queer women, queer sex, being in a relationship and being in love... she thinks.
Catherine Bohart's new show Lemon is coming to Ireland this month. Click here for more info.
