Ahead of his tour, Live Comedian, we sat down with Dublin comic Martin Angolo about his early career, worst gig, and his love of tension in a room.
"We'll see how it goes," Martin responds, dryly, when I congratulate him on the announcement of his new tour.
Known for his dry wit, sharp suits, and a signature pint of Guinness in hand, the stand-up's deadpan persona is as present off-stage as it is on.
"It should be good," he concedes. "People are saying congratulations, but I'm just putting on a show."
With a reputation as the funny kid in his class growing up, the Dubliner started testing out his material at just 19 years of age, despite his reluctance to be on stage.
"I wanted to be a writer," he explains, "but I would write things and not know what to do with it, so doing stand-up was a good way to test it out and see if it was funny. I didn't really want to be on stage, to be honest with you, but after a while, it became all I could do."
"It's my one skill," he laughs. "It's all I can do."
During his college years, Angolo began to watch live comedy across Dublin but was so put off by the idea it took a while before the career held real appeal.
"The first couple I saw, it was such hard work for the comedians, I thought 'I'm never going to do this'."
"I won't name them," he adds, laughing, "but I just remember thinking 'this guy is working so hard for this', but then I saw David O'Doherty and he was great, and I realised you could do something really interesting with it."
Although his first few gigs went well - he was even billed alongside some of RTÉ's New Comedy Awards finalists - it was a show in a poorly chosen location that transpired into his worst gig to date.
"I think the fifth gig in was a disaster, that was my first bad one, where I was gigging in a restaurant in Dalkey - because people try to put gigs on anywhere - and people were more interested in their soup than the performance."
"I remember there was one guy who was eating his parsnip soup and the comedy started happening around him and he refused to look up from his bowl for the whole gig," he laughs.
According to Angolo, gigging in every type of room and to every type of crowd imaginable in the US, UK, and Ireland, has made the stand-up "bulletproof" over the years.
This along with his online videos, and time spent co-hosting podcasts such as Canary in a Comedy Goldmine and The Substantial Meal, has garnered the comic a strong following.
Now, with his collection of increasingly snazzy shoes (keep an eye out at his next gig), he says he's ready to take his own tour on the road.
"I've got to do the big sell now, don't I?" he deadpans. "It's exciting."
"People coming to see you, that's what you really want; hopefully you have the leg up because they know what you're going to do. When no one knows who you are, you have to win them over... which is actually kind of fun in and of itself.
"I like the idea of people bringing a friend and the friend is unconvinced; you need a little bit of tension in the room in a comedy gig, you don't want everyone on your side straight away, otherwise that's a rally. You don't want a rally."
"There is a chunk of the show where I try to antagonise the audience and it kind of turns a bit panto as I try to - depending on where I am in the country - pick on something I know they'll hate," he laughs. "You try to deliberately anger them so you can win them back over."
Reflecting on the difference between Irish and American crowds, the funnyman insists that a laugh from an Irish crowd is hard-won.
"The only way to guarantee a round of applause from an Irish crowd is to drop a pint glass," he jokes. "America is interesting, they're very encouraging and they clap for everything."
"In America, you just say where they are: you say you're in New York and they cheer because they're in New York. I once did a gig in Tullamore and I said 'It's great to be in Tullamore' and no one believed me."
Click here for more information on Angolo's show, Live Comedian, as it tours across Ireland.
