Comedian and actress Deirdre O'Kane reflected on her approach to comedy in a wide-ranging interview on Saturday night's Tommy Tiernan Show, saying she cares "less about what people think of me".
When asked by fellow comic Tiernan why she thinks she is funnier now than she ever has been, O'Kane responded: "I don't actually think I'm funnier now. I think I'm a bit braver. I think I care a bit less. I care less about what people think of me. That's a hard one.
"Do you know what a bit of that is though? I think having been probably the only female in my stand-up world for a very long time - I don't think that helped me. I didn't see me, and I think audiences were possibly tougher on women back then.
"I mean, when I started there would be an audible groan when I was introduced on stage. You would hear 'Oh my God, there's a woman coming on now.'
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"And they judge you a bit harsher and they're a bit like, what does she look like? What is she wearing? It's always something. Women are always judged much more fiercely on their appearance. Even if I was swearing that is judged more harshly than if a man is.
"Now, that's changing, but that is absolutely a fact. That definitely was. And I think because of all of that, I think a little bit of me believed that I wasn't as good as the men around me, I was different.
"And you're always on the back foot when you're different, you know. But I don't have that now, that's gone."
When Tiernan observed that her stand-up comedy has gotten a "turbo boost of defiance and wit and power", O'Kane replied: "I think that's true. I think it's probably I'm a bit older and it's just the stage of life that I'm in.
"I mean, I stopped doing stand up for 10 years when my kids were little and I only came back six years ago. And when I came back, I kind of came back all guns blazing. I was very, very grateful for numerous reasons that I had an in and this is very much a second bite of the cherry and I feel like I didn't fully appreciate it the first time.
"I didn't understand what it was. I didn't understand the gift of it. I kind of didn't appreciate it. I still wanted to be an actress, I was quite distracted by that. Whereas now it has my full attention and I've kind of fallen in love with the art form again."
Tiernan theorized that her stand-up routines have become more individualized in recent years and she said: "I think you're right. I mean the best example of that is the show that I came back with after the break - that was very organic.
"I had to write it and that was probably because I had spent a bit of time at home being a full time mum and I was so horrified by how hard it was that I was like, 'Oh my God, nobody's talking about this!'
"I had to get that out, you know? And that was the first time that I was really passionate about - 'I need to say this now'. That is very important and that kind of hasn't gone away. That's stayed with me."
The Tommy Tiernan Show, Saturday nights at 9.50pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player
