Cork comedian Roger O'Sullivan has told The Ray D'Arcy Show that winning the Comedians' Choice Award for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has "kind of blown me away", revealing that his Edinburgh show, Fekken, almost fell through.
The Coachford comedian joined RTÉ Radio 1 on Monday to reflect on his win, telling the host: "I moved over to London a few years ago to do stand-up there, and it's so hard to get settled into the scene that getting something like this, voted [for] by comedians, it really just makes you feel like you're accepted now."
"And people will stand up and take notice of you now - people who are booking venues, people who are doing panel shows, all that sort of thing," said D'Arcy.
"It's all ahead of me now!" replied O'Sullivan. "I'll tell you, Ray, they'll be disappointed they crossed me, I'll tell you that much!"
The Comedians' Choice Awards are "the only Edinburgh Fringe prizes determined solely by performers", and O'Sullivan is in the best of company with his award, as his fellow Irish comedian Alison Spittle won Best Show for her latest, Big.
She also helped to make O'Sullivan's Edinburgh dream a reality.
"About a month and a half before the festival, my original venue, there was a change of management and the whole thing fell through," O'Sullivan recounted.
"I was ready to give up, to be honest. I was just like, 'Well, it's the Universe telling me I shouldn't do it'. But turns out the Universe was wrong anyway, because Alison Spittle told me, 'No, no, no, you have to - by hook or by crook, you have to do it. You've worked hard on the show'.
"She helped put me in touch with some people that sorted me out with a last-minute venue. I wasn't sure if I'd take it or not, because those last-minute deals it's always a lot of money, just unexpectedly. But luckily, it all worked out."
O'Sullivan said the title of his show, Fekken, is "a combination of, obviously, the classic Irish phrase 'feck' with the PlayStation 1 game Tekken".
"The conceit of the show is that I always feel like my dad... we've trouble relating to each other," he explained.
"And I think that it's because deep down inside he'd love if I just fought him over a land dispute - he's that type of man! That's the only way he'd ever truly be proud of me, I think!
"So the show is about seeing if maybe I could make him proud by us fighting over a land dispute in the PS1 game Tekken."
He described Tekken as "two lads fighting each other, basically, which would be my dad's sort of thing, to be fair".
"The conceit of your show is you and your dad in a computer game fighting over a field," said D'Arcy.
"Yeah, and trying to relate how I grew up versus how he grew up," said O'Sullivan. "He always said that we had it very easy growing up. Now, in hindsight, I think he probably is right, but as a kid, you know, you just think he's playing it up."
When asked how he had made such an impression among thousands of shows performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, O'Sullivan replied: "The social media is a big part of it now, that's definitely helpful.
"And I think, really, it is surprising how much of it is still word of mouth, though - getting people who liked your show to tell other people about your show and just spreading it. That one-on-one kind of recommendation is worth so much more than anything else you can really get in front of people."
"So what happens now?" asked D'Arcy. "Has your phone been hopping off it?"
"They've all been crawling out of the woodwork, Ray!" joked O'Sullivan.
"They've all been trying to get a piece of me. I've been having speech and drama teachers coming out saying, 'Oh, I remember... I remember I had you when you were 10'. Everybody [is] trying to take a little bit of credit, but I'll be very humble now, I will, I will!"
"Who else has won this over the years? Whose company are you in?" asked D'Arcy.
"I didn't even think to check that!" O'Sullivan laughed.
"That tells you everything you need to know about me! I just said, 'Well, I have it now, so that's all that matters!'"
The Ray D'Arcy Show, weekdays, RTÉ Radio 1, 3pm
