Funny Talk: Patrick McDonnell

McDonnell gets serious…

hen the Hardy Har Comedy Club recently held their inaugural Bray Comedy Festival in 2016, the highlight for many of the five-day laughaton was undoubtedly the Father Ted night.

And for many there, the highlight of that night was Patrick McDonnell.

Best known for The Savage Eye and Naked Camera, McDonnell also won a legion of fans when he played the Daniel O’Donnell-esque Eoin McLove in the Father Ted episode Night Of The Nearly Dead.

Making the move into drama in recent years, both onstage and on-screen, McDonnell continues to make his mark in comedy, both in the likes of Moone Boy and Bridget & Eamon as well as, of course, through his stand-up.

It’s been said before (by me) so, I’ll say it again – if John Hinde and Spike Milligan had a baby, we reckon the little sprog could very well be Patrick McDonnell.

You can catch this County Louth lout at the Robinson Comedy Club in sunny Greystones on Thursday, July 31st, alongside some other eejits. 

In the meantime, young Pat exclusively reveals his comedy heroes to GG…

Larry David
I loved Seinfeld but was slow to pick up on Curb Your Enthusiasm. When I did I had about four great seasons to catch up on. He was interviewed by Gerry Seinfeld in Comedians In Cars Drinking Coffee a while back and he seemed genuinely neurotic and a bit narky. Fair play.

Steve Coogan
The recent Alan Partridge output on Sky Atlantic has been great, possibly slightly better than the original sitcoms. He was great in the various Trip series too. It’s hard to stay consistently funny as the decades whizz by but dare I say he’s improving.

Ricky Gervais
The Office is my favourite television series and Extras had some outstanding set pieces. I’d hate to meet him though.

Peter Richardson
The main man behind the great Comic Strip episodes from the eighties. It was a bleak enough decade for television comedy but he kept the flame alight. Great as Al Pacino in Strike.

Peter Cook
God!

Christopher Guest
This Is Spinal Tap fundamentally altered my brain structure when I watched it in the mid-eighties. It more than blew my mind. It was year zero for comedy. Every scene is brilliant. He went on to make Waiting for Guffman, another brilliant film.

Chris Morris
The nineties was a great decade for comedy, and Chris Morris was at the vanguard. He even directed the pilot episode of Big Train. Four Lions brilliantly satirised what I would have thought was unsatirisable.

Laurel and Hardy
My father had no appreciation of fiction, so never watched films with the rest of us. I have a memory of all my family watching one of their films, including him; it was a touchingly strange moment. I watch them with my son now.

Woody Allen
Myself and Dave McSavage met recently after we had both been watching Annie Hall independently of each other. We were both taken aback by how incredible it was. Woody Allen hasn’t made a decent film in a couple of decades but had spent the previous three churning out classics. Again, I wouldn’t want to meet him.

Harry and Paul
Their Story Of The Twos was a massive return to form for these two giants. Smashy and Nicey were a huge inspiration to me. I’d love to meet them.

Patrick McDonnell headlines the Robinson Comedy Club on Thursday, July 31st. More info right about here.