Kevin McAleer is to retire from stand-up after 40 years with two farewell gigs in Dublin and Belfast this April.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, the 67-year-old said: 'It feels like a natural ending. I've been doing stand-up for over 40 years. It’s time for something new.
Born in Omagh, County Tyrone, McAleer first came to fame in Ireland on the 1980s RTÉ show Nighthawks, where he would spin surreal yarns in a very laid-back style.
He enjoyed further success playing tedious Uncle Colm in hit Channel 4 comedy Derry Girls.
Fellow comedian Stewart Lee once called McAleer‘the funniest stand-up I’ve ever seen,’ adding, ‘In the late 80s his slide show, mainly of owls, during which he describes inaccurately a succession of bland images, reduced me to tears."
McAleer appeared on an episode of Channel 4’s Friday Night Live in 1987 with the routine.
His farewell gigs, in which "he’ll try and cram his best moments from his extensive career into 90 minutes", take place at Vicar Street in Dublin on 11 April and Belfast’s Mandela Hall on 21 April.
