After a week-long run at London's O2 Arena playing to over 60,000 people, Rory Cowan is bowing out at the top of his game.  Show biz gigs don't come much bigger than that and Rory's quitting while he's ahead.  In his 26 years working with Brendan O'Carroll (originally as his publicist), Rory has seen and done it all and frankly, he's tired.

"I actually should have left Mrs Brown's Boys after the Australian tour last year…  When I went back on the road this year I very quickly realized, no, I don't want to be here.  I've had enough.  I'm bored.  I'm tired of it now."

News of his departure caused an international ruckus and made it onto primetime news.  "I can't get over that!" Rory exclaims.  "This is bizarre, it's only a comedy show.  I left a comedy show!"

After 17 years in the role of Mrs Brown's Rory, it's understandable that it's time for a change.

"I'm fifty eight and I'm playing one of Mrs Brown's Boys.  When you think about it, it's absurd at this stage.  I was doing that part when I was forty and even then I was probably a bit old to be playing Mrs Browns Boys, this dizzy queen.  And times have changed as well.  When Brendan wrote Rory and Dino… he made them very likeable and he wrote them before 1993, when decriminalization came in…  The whole world has changed now so the character Rory is probably redundant"

Rory had had enough of the tough touring lifestyle, but more than that, for him, the sparkle of the Mrs Brown's Boys juggernaut had begun to fade.

"It's gone so big that the challenges are gone now.  When I started with Brendan we were playing in pubs, then we were trying to get bigger pubs, then we were trying to get bigger audiences, then you're trying to get into theatres, then you're trying to get bigger theatres, then you're trying to break in somewhere in the UK.  Now we're playing arenas… There's no challenge left…  It just seems that it's gone into a rut for me, doing the same venues, staying in the same accommodation." 

Rory's decision to leave is circumstantial and certainly nothing personal against his co-stars, who he says were fabulous and made him feel like family, maybe too much so, he jokes!

"Brendan O'Carroll was a very generous employer…  He's after losing one of his major stars of the show because he was so generous it enabled me to go!"

So what next for the star?  After years on the road making music playlists for fun during down time, Rory would love the chance to host his own radio programme.

"The only ambition I've ever had that I've never done is have my little Saturday afternoon radio show somewhere – that's all!  If I was to do something on television or on stage, it's never going to be as big as Mrs Brown's Boys.  I'm not ruling out anything but I'm just not aiming as high as that because it's not going to happen twice."

Click here for the full interview.