Eurovision winner Niamh Kavanagh and comedian Gearóid Farrelly have been friends for a very long time. In their new podcast, Agony Rants, the duo are banding together to tackle problems big and small.
If you need unwavering and unconditional support, Niamh is ready to be your champion. And if you're looking to burn the world down because an ex scored you, Gearóid is on the case.
The two best friends are delivering episodes every Monday, offering advise and if necessary a brutal campaign of revenge on your behalf. We caught up with Gearóid to find out more.
How did the idea for Agony Rants come about?
We've talked about doing something for years because I've been friends with Niamh since I was a kid. We started this in October and it's been flying - I'm kind of surprised by it, to be honest! We made a pilot to see what it would sound like and it was the best fun and the network liked it.
It wasn't originally titled Agony Rants. We were doing shout out for topics in Instagram - best friends or pets or whatever - and a couple of people, I don't know if they just didn't get the message, but they started sending us their problems and it just worked. Now we're at the stage where we're getting too many problems!
The idea of the show was really born out of the fact that everybody has had a s**t year and we just want to give people half an hour on a Monday morning where they just laugh. If it's not funny, we're not doing it.
Are you the person that friends go to for advice?
I kind of would be. In the friends group, I'm probably the person who loves picking apart a problem and saying 'this is what you should do'. Obviously my reactions on the show are a lot more extreme than they would be in real life, but I love nothing more than saying 'ok, let's sort this out'.
Are you getting a range of issues to tackle?
Yeah, some people have the best problems, but we also get a lot of strange problems and some are really heavy going. One person wrote in about wanting kids but she was dating someone who didn't, and it's obviously much harder for women because there's a time frame - so with that one I was like, 'Niamh!'
Do you ever get topics in that you don't want to touch?
We don't have any guidelines but there's definitely times where... I definitely think with our show, a lot of it is around people finding a tribe. During the pandemic I did this online bake along and every week there was the same gang of people, and we'd bake and I'd do some stand up and stuff, and I really began to feel like it was a touch point for people. I think that's what Agony Rants is.
If something comes in that's quite serious, we'll say, 'listen, maybe you should se a counsellor' because we're not professionals in any way. We're as much use as the friends that you'd meet for a coffee!
But I think people just like to be heard when they have a problem. Sometimes it's not about finding a solution, it's just accepting that you're having a hard time.
A podcast about problems is a nice antidote to the 'Instagram highlights' version of social media that we always see
People look up to people who have jobs in entertainment, but I think it was a good wake up call for everyone. Even on Agony Rants, we did an episode where Niamh spoke about getting a job in Tesco and I was off the road so I went back to do a post-grad. It's sometimes nice to hear that anyone's life can fall apart and everyone is human!
Any memorable moments on the show so far?
It's always nice when someone sends an update and they thank you for the advice and tell you what's been going on.
As regards to memorable moments, we spoke about fortune tellers recently, and we had a guy write in about how he had a fortune teller in London read his tongue and told him to eat more melon. I mean, that's what you want!
To get in touch with your problems, email Agonyrants@gmail.com. To see Gearóid's future tour dates, click here.
