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Tommy Tiernan: "My day is constructed around buzzes"

Updated / Monday, 12 Jun 2023 12:37
Tommy Tiernan
Tommy Tiernan

Sínann Fetherston sits down with comedian Tommy Tiernan ahead of his gig in Cork's Marquee.

"I'm always amazed at stuff that you think of," says Tommy Tiernan, sitting in the RTÉ Radio building, chatting between radio slots.

"Before you start putting your show together, you have nothing and you don't know how you're going to get something, and then at the end of a show... like, I came up with this line recently and it makes me laugh so much, you almost can't claim personal responsibility for it because you didn't physically make it."

Describing a recent gig in America, where he played to a largely Black audience while opening for African American comic D. L. Hughley, he posits that he became a vessel for comedy while describing the women in the room.

"I said they were so beautiful - now this line just came to me, and it's almost that you can't claim personal responsibility for it - I said, they were so good looking, you wouldn't even get to ride them in heaven," he laughs. "You'd have to stand back and watch while God had sex with them, right? So, the whole show was like that.

"The whole show is, you're not sure where these lines come from but you're just grateful for the fact that they're coming out of your mouth. That's how I feel about Tomfoolery. I'm not entirely sure how it happened. I'm grateful that I ended up with the show I was able to tour, and it's quite daunting now trying to move on to the next one."

"You can't force that stuff," he adds. "It either happens or it doesn't."

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The Tommy Tiernan Show presenter is currently promoting the last leg of the Tomfoolery tour, which ends its Irish run in the Marquee in Cork on Thursday, June 15. The funnyman told Oliver Callan (filling in for Ryan Tubridy) on RTÉ Radio 1 that the tour will go on for another few dates in America, but says this will be his last live show in Ireland for a while.

Reflecting on the tour, which has seen both success and controversy during its run (the comedian apologised to RTÉ presenter Emer O'Neill who walked out of his gig in Dublin's Vicar Street due to an offensive joke), Tiernan says he is excited to challenge himself in new terrain.

"I'm excited about going over to the States," he explains, noting that although he loves gigging in Irish venues, there was a certain "buzz" about gigging to an audience that didn't know him.

"I find America exciting; it's kind of dangerous, you know, it's on the edge of collapse but the people are really friendly and engaging and very funny."

Describing himself as a natural hard worker, it seems that breaking America may be the next challenge the comic can set for himself, given the level of success he has already found at home, between his stand-up, popular chat show, and beloved role in Derry Girls.

"Maybe, but I also have moments of profound snooziness as well," he laughs. "My wife diagnosed me recently with ADHD, and she might be right, so it's that thing of having buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, snooze. Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! Snooze."

"That's the way I live; there's no middle ground, really. My day is constructed around buzzes, you know? You get up in the morning and it's coffee buzz and then I might have a cigar then, so cigar and a coffee buzz, and then I might go for a run buzz, and then a snoooze. And then more buzzes! More buzzes!"

That very energy has become synonymous with the comedian, who is known to bring giddy tension and hyperactivity to his act.

According to the funnyman, words have always been a fascination, and performing comes naturally, but finding movement on stage is something he still plays with, insisting that he is "obsessed" with detail.

"The thing now is to allow the show to happen," he muses, explaining that, these days, he likes to walk out on stage sans plan "in as relaxed a state as possible".

Previously, he would try a variety of breathing techniques before walking on stage which, he says, put him in an "altered" state.

"You're hyperventilating for about half an hour, and every ten minutes you're holding your breath for as long as you can, so you're doing something to do with oxygen and your skull. It was kind of like being legally stoned going on stage. You're on another, either elevated or depressed, level.

"I used it and I definitely felt it on stage as well. Stuff was coming to me, sentences were coming that weren't normal, and I could see the audience going, 'this is a bit weird, what's happening?' but I loved it for a year, it was great.

"There was something about that breathing thing that changed for a moment the molecular shape of your imagination, or it opened another door, but then - I did that solidly for a year - and then I did it for two or three nights in a row where it didn't work, where it gave me bad advice, so then I said the next adventure would be in relaxing and seeing where it brings me."

To catch Tommy Tiernan's next adventure, click here.

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