Pat Shortt is in good form. Check that, Pat Shortt is in great form. He’s just finished rehearsals for his latest stage outing (more on that later), and with his latest movie, 'SoulBoy', going on general release from September 3, and the arrival of the first season of his new sitcom, Mattie, makes it a very impressive start to autumn for the Thurles comedian.
Indeed, describing Pat Shortt as a comedian is a major understatement these days. Sure, his rise to fame was on the back of his partnership with John Kenny in the hilarious D’Unbelievables, and continued with his multi-part portrayal of rural Irish life in Killinaskully, but in reality he’s long been much more than a funny man.
As well as being a noted musician, he’s performed in serious theatrical roles, while also making an award-winning performance as a socially isolated petrol attendant in the highly-acclaimed movie, 'Garage'.
Pat has appeared with Druid Theatre Company in a production of Martin McDonagh’s 'The Lonesome West', and he’s back with the serious stuff: this time around he’s signed up for what promises to be a cracking production of Sebastian Barry’s 1990 play 'Boss Grady's Boys' at Dublin’s Gaiety theatre.
"I’m just after coming out of rehearsals there now, so I’m finished up for tonight", Pat explains. And so far? "It’s going great. It’s going very well, but it’s tough. It’s a big one, because I don’t do much theatre and it’s a different world to what I’m used to with the comedy, but you need to jump out of your comfort zone every now and again. It rattles you up and shakes you up. It also gives you more confidence in what you’re doing and you enjoy it more when you come back." Pausing for a moment, he adds: "You begin to realise that everything is possible."
Starring alongside Shortt in this tale of two brothers living in a small hill farm on the Cork/Kerry border, is none other than Tom Hickey. One of the legends of Irish theatre, Hickey also worked with Shortt on Garage.
Shortt is delighted to be working in the theatre with Hickey, but as he’s always up for a laugh, he can’t help remarking that his co-star, "was doing stuff on film or on TV back in 1967 – that’s the year I was born! He was already in the game for years at that stage."
The giggling stops quickly enough, as Pat Shortt is also keen to emphasise that he has the utmost respect for an actor who became one of Irish TV’s early stars, playing Benjy Riordan in the classic soap, The Riordans. "And The Riordans was huge", says Pat, with a reverential hush. "Funnily enough, I was looking at a bit on YouTube of The Riordans, it was wonderful stuff Tom was doing – and it was the same for the people he worked with. He learned so much from John Cowley and people like that, and now I’m learning off him." Getting a fresh fit of the giggles, he adds: "Sure you’d be a fool if you didn’t!"
Then there’s that little matter of Mattie. Following a hugely successful pilot at Christmas, Shortt’s latest TV venture was green-lit for a series, which will be on Sundays on RTÉ One. Naturally enough, he’s "very excited about it."
With Killinaskully long departed to TV heaven, Mattie is an opportunity for Pat Shortt to put that success behind him. That’s the nature of showbiz; it’s constantly changing, and Shortt’s been around long enough to avoid being a slouch.
"I worked on it over the summer, and until now I’d nearly forgotten about it", he laughs. "It’s exciting to start up again and I’m really excited about Mattie. There seems to be an appetite out there for it, and I’ll be eager to see the reaction to the first episode. It was great fun, we’ve good writers – what can I say? I’m very, very excited."
Although it’s a comedy, Mattie is quite removed from Killinaskully. For one, it’s a cop show; for two, it’s city rather than rural-based; and thirdly, it’s a new show, so that brings new opportunities and a clean slate for Shortt to work off and be creative. "It’s not as caricatured as Killinaskully", he says. "But I’d really like audiences to see it and make up their own minds."
Chances are Pat Shortt will be unavoidable over the next while. As he points out: "That whole week is going to be mad, because the play is opening in Dublin, 'SoulBoy' is going on general release all over the country and Mattie’s going out on a Sunday night – oh, and the kids are back to school", he adds laughing.
Pat’s latest movie, 'SoulBoy', is directed by Shimmy Marcus, who also called the shots on 'Mattie'. It was filmed back in 2008, but is only getting a general release now. "It’s about the Northern Soul dance scene in 1970s’ England", Pat explains. "It’s like the precursor to the rave scene. It was all-night dancing and there was a lot of uppers and downers and all that kind of stuff involved as well."
Somehow, it’s hard to imagine Pat Shortt in a pair of Oxford baggies, spinning around to a Jerry Butler track, but he insists that his character’s not quite in that bracket. Giggling wildly, he says: "I do a mean Tom Jones impression in the film so I do!"
John Byrne
