Shane Todd on the joy of live comedy and opening for Kevin Hart

Shane Todd on the return of live comedy, hustling during lockdown, and learning from Kevin Hart.

Like many comedians, Shane Todd is an 'overnight success' 15 years in the making.

Hailing from Holywood, Belfast, the stand up started his career with a disastrous open mic night at the young age of 18. Persevering through tough gigs for little to no money, he spent much of his early years driving to Dublin and flying to London to seek out crowds.

"When I started, you had to travel. Once or twice a week I would have driven down to Dublin with a load of other acts from up north. We would have tried to do as many shows as possible. Sometimes you would get no spots, but it was still a good trip," he laughed.

In 2015, the Belfast man went full time with his comedy career, but it wasn't until 2020, when live entertainment came to a stand-still that Todd found his stride.

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Pivoting to online outlets, the Jack-of-all-trades found a broad audience thanks to his Rave Lockdowns on Radio Ulster with comedic partner Dave Elliott; his comedy tour back through the BBC archives on Previously with Shane Todd; his comedic takes on Irish history with Dublin co-host Hazel Hayes on We're Not F***ing Historians, and his viral-worthy interviews on Tea with Me featuring high profile guests like Jamie Dornan, Derry Girls stars Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Jamie-Lee O'Donnell, and singer Janet Devlin.

"We [he and his wife, Stacey] were expecting a baby at the start of lockdown, we had him in the middle of it. It was a case of all the gigs went away, all the live work, so I really did just have to bring out content and shoot stuff."

"I consider myself a hard worker anyway but as a necessity, I really had to push things out there and I knew people would be at home looking for something to watch."

With over 81k Instagram followers to his name, and a burgeoning fandom in both Northern Ireland and beyond, Todd was ready to return to the stage in 2022 - he just wasn't expecting to do it alongside US star Kevin Hart.

"It's one of those situations where I don't know if it really happened or not," he says, still sounding stunned.

"I don't know whether this is a fake life I'm living in. He was coming to Belfast for a couple of months to shoot a Netflix film, and I got a heads up before Christmas that he was going to do support and asked did I want to do support and open for him."

"I thought long and hard about it," he jokes, "and I decided it was probably be something I was interested in. We have the same agent so I think that was my way in and I sort of... let's just say I made myself available to them."

"If there only would have been one, I would have been happy with that but we did 25 shows including the arenas."

As well as playing the 11,000 seater SSE Arena, Hart surprised comedy fans with some intimate gigs in Lavery's, a 100 seater family-owned bar in Belfast.

"Just to be in the room and watch his set was great but to see his hour develop and see the subtle changes he was making, it's definitely helped me with my own stand-up, watching a master at work," says Todd.

"It was weird because, obviously I had just been on before him and the buzz from it was wild. To watch him master a crowd of 11,000 and then do it in front of 100 is sort of as impressive because the expectation level when he gets announced on the stage goes through the roof and that can be really difficult."

"The expectation is so high, the bar is so high, but every night was the best show anyone had ever seen."

With 25 gigs worth of comedy lessons from Kevin Hart in his back pocket, Todd is ready to bring his stand up skills to fans at the Paddy Power Comedy Festival in the Iveagh Gardens, Dublin, this July.

Reflecting on the growing comedy scene across Ireland, both on and offline, the stand-up says audiences are overdue a show like this.

"I think it's the live thing that people were missing," he muses. "I think people's appetite for comedy did grow a bit. When it's a good night of stand-up, there's no better night. When it's at its best it's such a good experience. I think comedy has had another boom."

"I love going down to festivals," he adds. "I've done most of the Irish festivals like Kilkenny and Galway and it's great because to perform at them is excellent, but I would happily just go down as a punter. To see comedians you haven't seen in a couple of years is great."

"I always mean to go to Dublin more and do those trips that I used to when I started, driving down on a Thursday night and doing a couple of spots, but I never manage to get around to it, so I am really excited to go down and properly do it now."

For more information on the Paddy Power Comedy Festival, click here.

Belfast comedian Shane Todd on the joy of live comedy and opening for Kevin Hart

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