Despite the sell-out success of the Monster tour and a shelf-load of awards for Black Books, Dylan Moran remains as steadfastly gloomy as ever about the art of stand-up comedy. “You’re standing there pandering to a couple of hundred swivel-eyed, maroon-faced, braying fucks,” he groans to Barry Glendenning.
For the final installment of London Calling, Barry Glendenning felt it would be appropriate to compose an emotional, heartfelt farewell to his legions of loyal readers. Sadly, he never got around to it and sent us the following copy instead.
Or maybe not. Barry Glendenning on why press reaction to the Irishman’s stint as the BBC’s Olympics anchor was just ever so slightly guilty of silly season sensationalism.
As well as improving his word power, the admirable Reader’s Digest gives Barry Glendenning some indigestible food for thought about the place of Ireland in europe
Tony Blair may dream of a Downing Street full of women volleyball players, but do we really want Chas ’n’ Dave at the Olympics opening ceremony? Especially when the samba girls of Rio are waiting in the wings.
Despite the resolutely Irish blood coursing through his veins, Barry Glendenning nonetheless committed the heretical gesture of celebrating with the blighty faithful following England’s world cup win. Read on for the full shocking details…
It’s amazing what you can get these days for the price of a pint of stella! A freeloading Barry Glendenning celebrates the arrival of his dinky new computer.
It’s amazing what you can get these days for the price of a pint of stella! A freeloading Barry Glendenning celebrates the arrival of his dinky new computer.
How the Sunday Independent is boosting the tourism industry by convincing English readers that Ireland is populated exclusively by amiable drunkards, rock stars, men who drive fast cars and women wearing little or no clothing.
Three-in-a-bed romps! drunken footballers on the rampage! and they’re just the questions! however, given that the interviewee is Ireland’s most beloved player Damien Duff you won’t be surprised to learn that the answers are rather more down to earth – including why, with hindsight, he can now chuckle at being on the inside track for the Roy Keane saga in Saipan. “I’m just a big kid at heart,” he tells Barry Glendenning, as he prepares to play a man’s role in Ireland’s crunch game against Switzerland
Sports correspondent Barry Glendenning reports on exciting new developments in cricket and enjoys a day at the races – purely with the intention of, er, studying the field, of course
Well, a bloke actually. Barry Glendenning offers a considered solution to Ireland’s drink problem: halve the price of gargle, legalise dope and ship all the youth off to Slovenia
In which your correspondent strongly retracts previously stated praise for the London underground, and celebrates the cavalier approach of the irrepressible Birr hurlers.
Lovely former Longpigs frontman and occasional Pulp guitarist Richard Hawley talks solo albums, Sheffield sauces and swears a lot, before offering a world exclusive on Robbie Williams. Sort of.
In the media wilderness, certain maverick voices can be depended upon to speak the truth. Also, the agonising decision faced by the FA’s dubious goals committee.
An Irish football legend shoots from the hip: the highs and lows of the World Cup, the pain in the ass of being 'Saint Niall', the reason players get fed-up with the FAI, why Kevin Kilbane would make a good husband, and where to now for Mick McCarthy, Roy Keane and Ireland after that disastrous start to the European Championship.
Despite overwhelming evidence in support of the view, it is apparently now a criminal offence to call a certain columnist's favourite
football team "shite"
Exploring the mystery of how one human being can survive being thrown from a horse with barely a scratch while another is near death after a quiet drink in a country pub
The Dublin-born editor of Marie Claire, one of the world's most successful magazines, answers to charges that her title promotes hypocrisy, air-headedness, sexism and sycophancy. remarkably, she doesn't throw troublesome Hotpress out of her office
Black, dark, twisted, perverse, politically incorrect, macabre, obscene, profane, disturbing, gothic… and, oh yes, hilariously funny. Barry Glendenning meets the League of Gentlemen, the unlikely stars of radio, stage and screen who may well be coming to a theatre near you
MUNDY
The Borderline, London
Standing centre stage before a throng comprised of an astonishing number of nubile young rock chicks and their “how-the-fuck-did-that-nerd-pull-her” boyfriends in the smoky bowels of Time Out magazine’s current live music venue of the year, Mundy radiates a hitherto unseen confidence.
Despite the continued absence of Phil 'The Power' Taylor, the Embassy World Darts Championship at Frimley Green made for essential viewing. BARRY GLENDENNING reports.
Rsismn Murphy was born in Dublin, raised in Arklow, lived in Manchester and moved to Sheffield. That was when it all started to go right. Linking up with Mark Brydon, she formed Moloko an eclectic and soulful outfit who ve gone on to become one of contemporary music s hottest properties. Now they re back in Ireland for the Creamfields extravaganza.
Interview: Barry Glendenning. Camera: Steve fisher
Lock a monkey in a room with a state of the art PC for long enough and it will
eventually type the complete works of Shakespeare. No surprise then, that
BARRY GLENDENNING can t even type a pound sign.
As his first solo series concludes on Channel 4, respect is due to SACHA BARON COHEN,
creator of ALI G, comedy s king of keeping it real.
BARRY GLENDENNING says Bo selecta!
This fortnight, BARRY GLENDENNING discovers that a love of birds and an ungainly gait on the football field are the only traits he shares with Duncan Ferguson.
He may have been beaten out of sight by Robson & Jerome, Wet Wet Wet, Lionel Richie and Unchained Melody , but Chris De Burgh was the undisputed star of Channel 4 s Top 10 Hits: Love Songs. BARRY GLENDENNING reports.
Is the time right for Welsh rock n rollers STEREOPHONICS to cash in on their Brits Best Newcomer award of 1998? It is, explains a frustrated KELLY JONES to BARRY GLENDENNING, but only if they can get out of this fucking airport.
Intrigued by the ridicule and bad press being generated by London s Millennium Dome, BARRY GLENDENNING pays a visit to Greenwich and discovers why Tony Blair is having trouble sustaining his massive erection.
According to BARRY GLENDENNING, the overlords who persuaded Ben Elton and Richard Curtis to revive Blackadder for the Millennium Dome wouldn't know a cunning plan if it painted itself purple, danced naked on top of a harpsichord and sang 'Cunning Plans Are Here Again'.
To the relief of countless Hot Press staff who bet that it would take less than six months, BARRY GLENDENNING completes his transformation from amiable Offaly muck savage into name-dropping London showbiz wanker in the nick of time. Read on . . .
Not content with delivering his funniest - and shortest - gig ever this fortnight sees BARRY GLENDENNING unveil his blueprint for the future of comedy. Needless to say, it's so crazy it might just work.
IN RAT Pack Confidential, his immensely entertaining analysis of the bacchanalian rites of Frank Sinatra s showbiz pals summit in early 60s Vegas, Shawn Levy tells a story about stand-up comedian Joey Bishop, one of the lesser known rodents on the famous Sands Hotel bill which comprised such showbiz luminaries as Ol Blue Eyes, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr and Peter Lawford.
IN RAT Pack Confidential, his immensely entertaining analysis of the bacchanalian rites of Frank Sinatra s showbiz pals summit in early 60s Vegas, Shawn Levy tells a story about stand-up comedian Joey Bishop, one of the lesser known rodents on the famous Sands Hotel bill which comprised such showbiz luminaries as Ol Blue Eyes, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr and Peter Lawford.
He s the editor of Private Eye, a regular on one of television s most populAr shows and he got his big career break from Peter Cook. Notwithstanding all those bruising court battles, IAN HISLOP has more reasons than most to be cheerful. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING.
Heineken/Hot Press Awards presenter ULRIKA JONSSON offers her thoughts on fame, comedy, motherhood, relationships, loyalty and the media A? as well as a very final word on Stan Collymore. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING.
THERE’S CERTAINLY no keeping up with this particular Jones. As if a collaboration with The Art Of Noise wasn’t trendy enough, the man who legions of Joe Dolan fans would have us believe is Wales’ answer to Joe Dolan goes one better with an entire album of instantly recognisable classics recorded beside an array of the great, the good and the Simply Red of the current musical milieu.
They may be about as prolific as giant pandas, but now the waiting is over. The mighty LEFTFIELD are back with their first new material in almost five years - the new album Rhythm And Stealth - and it looks set to have the same genre-redefining impact as their debut long-player Leftism. BARRY GLENDENNING talks to mainman PAUL DALEY about media critics, professional jealousy, John Lydon, banned videos and that Guinness ad.
Despite being peerless at his chosen profession, CHRIS MORRIS has been sacked from more jobs than most people will have in a lifetime. He announced the death of Michael Heseltine on live radio, was responsible for a debate about non-existent drugs in the House of Commons and once screamed Christ s fat cock! at Cliff Richard during an interview. BARRY GLENDENNING examines the career of the broadcaster commonly regarded as Britain s foremost media satirist.
ONE OF the main reasons I moved to London was because I had shagged my way through the entire female population of Ireland and had an overwhelming desire to graze carnal pastures new.
BARRY GLENDENNING s escapades in the UK capital continue. This issue one good gig, one bad gig, a gag about masturbation and a visit from a controversial rock critic.
While no end of guitar bands would kill to occupy the same lofty perch as this shower in the pop-rock firmament, you get the impression that Cast's reputation as solid, dependable, on-stage-at-7pm festival fodder is a source of constant frustration for frontman John Power.
Trent Duval, 28, is a stand-up comedian who has been playing the Irish comedy circuit for almost three years. He is currently working on a sitcom set in the Maldives, a play, two period dramas and a novel. In August, he takes his one-man show, Pre-Millennium Tension, to the Edinburgh Festival. He shares a house in Northside Dublin with his friends, Jack, an accountant, and Midgy (not his real name), a leisure centre manager.
The MILLENNIUM BUG is lurking and technological Armageddon seems imminent. However, the Evening Herald seems surprisingly unconcerned. BARRY GLENDENNING wonders why.
Irish fiction continues to grow in both popularity and hipness. In this special feature we talk to three of its most prominent young exponents: John Connolly, Conal Creedon and Julie Parsons.
Irish fiction continues to grow in both popularity and hipness. In this special feature we talk to three of its most prominent young exponents: John Connolly, Conal Creedon and Julie Parsons.
DURING THE 70s, Jim Moir comprised 20% of an ensemble known as the Fashionable Five who, for a laugh, once followed a complete stranger through their home town of Darlington, in single file, for half a mile.
Not content with making audiences around the country laugh, comedian IAN COPPINGER recently came perilously close to causing Irish comedy s first mirth-induced death.
BARRY GLENDENNING hears all.
BARRY GLENDENNING incurs the wrath of several very hungover Irish comedians by dragging them out of bed to give progress reports after week one of the Edinburgh Festival.
EVERY COMEDIAN enjoys a “corporate”, those occasional highly paid bookings by companies who wish to bring their staff out for an evening’s worth of drunken ribaldry and mirth.
Impartial, level-headed Offaly supporter BARRY GLENDENNING chronicles the good, the bad and the downright Bizarre in this year’s All-Ireland hurling championship and predicts that the Liam McCarthy cup is, once again, bound for the Midlands.
Karen Ramirez may have hit the big time with her massive hit single ‘Looking For Love’, but, as she tells Barry Glendenning, her heart
currently lies not in the Top Of The Pops studio, but in sunny Naples.
Under severe editorial pressure, journalist/comedian BARRY GLENDENNING is forced to interview himself. But then, given time, he would have anyway.
Pic: Peter Mathews.
Ever on the lookout for new comedic talent, BARRY GLENDENNING selects his World Cup squad from the wits and half-wits who rarely failed to reduce us to paroxysms of mirth with their “expert analysis” of the Beautiful Game during France 98.
WE ARE pleased to report that following the second anniversary of the Murphy’s Corduroy Comedy Club (The Norseman, Temple Bar, Thursday nights), resident compere John Henderson has decided to move upstairs (metaphorically speaking, of course – the Club is already upstairs) in order to oversee Corduroy affairs from his new position as Director of Comedy.
colin murphy is living proof that there is such a thing as a comedic afterlife. The Downpatrick funny man, who once "died every week for six months", tells barry glendenning all about heaven down here.
barry glendenning got a sneak preview of what awaits us at the Big Day Out, when he caught the irrepressible beastie boys live at London's Brixton Academy. All together now: no sleep till Galway!
The release of her second album Blue Planet should prove beyond all reasonable
doubt that DONNA LEWIS is no One Hit Wonder.
Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING.
With the Tour de France scheduled to kick off in Ireland on July 11th this year, the subject of drugs in international sport has become a hot topic again. Not only did PAUL KIMMAGE take drugs himself as a professional cyclist - he wrote an award-winning book about it. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING
GERRY MALLON is the brains behind The Murphy's Comedy Club which has been running weekly in Galway's GPO for the last three years, despite one Englishman's determined attempt to incinerate the joint. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING.
BARRY GLENDENNING visited the Leeds Town and Country to witness the BRUTUS GOLD LOVE TRAIN, an unfeasibly
popular 70s disco extravaganza that will soon be winging its way to Dublin.
BARRY GLENDENNING visited the Leeds Town and Country to witness the BRUTUS GOLD LOVE TRAIN, an unfeasibly
popular 70s disco extravaganza that will soon be winging its way to Dublin.
BARRY GLENDENNING pays suitably dewy-eyed tribute to Seinfeld, the unfeasibly popular American sit-com which lasted nine years, despite the fact that nothing ever actually happened on it.
Well and truly punch-drunk and punch-lined, BARRY GLENDENNING rounds
up the gargles and the giggles at this year's CAT LAUGHS COMEDY FESTIVAL
in Kilkenny. Pix: Kevin Clancy
RICH HALL has survived working with David Letterman and having his love life exposed in the Sindo, to take his rightful place as one of the top attractions of this year's Cat Laughs Festival. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING.
Top British stand-up DONNA McPHAIL takes time out from doing the dishes to discuss sexism in comedy, being pissed and England's World Cup prospects.
Token man: BARRY GLENDENNING.
Best known for his mirth-inducing, deadpan quips on Have I Got News For You, paul merton is travelling to Kilkenny this year for the Murphy's Cat Laughs comedy festival. A typically upbeat barry glendenning asks him about bad comedy, failed marriages, mental breakdowns and Don't Feed The Gondolas.
Best known for his mirth-inducing, deadpan quips on Have I Got News For You, paul merton is travelling to Kilkenny this year for the Murphy's Cat Laughs comedy festival. A typically upbeat barry glendenning asks him about bad comedy, failed marriages, mental breakdowns and Don't Feed The Gondolas.
Best known for his mirth-inducing, deadpan quips on Have I Got News For You, paul merton is travelling to Kilkenny this year for the Murphy's Cat Laughs comedy festival. A typically upbeat barry glendenning asks him about bad comedy, failed marriages, mental breakdowns and Don't Feed The Gondolas.
jasper carrott's days as a director of Birmingham City FC may be long gone, but despite having some 20 successful years in the comedy business behind him, there are still some people out there who haven't forgiven the Brummie for his 1975 single 'Funky Moped'/'Magic Roundabout'.
Interview: Barry Glendenning.
Her fantasy is out-qualifying Michael Schumacher, she once drove at 200 miles per hour and she'd "consider" sleeping with a fat, sweaty Italian if it meant getting a drive with Ferrari! She's sarah kavanagh, and her ambition is to take her place on the Forumula One grid by the year 2,000. Interview: barry glendenning.
Pix: clare kavanagh.
Forget Rod, Emu and gottles of geer david strassman s ventriloquism is the missing link between rock n roll and Bill Hicks. barry glendenning meets the
puppet master. Pix: cathal dawson.
According to producer LISSA EVANS, the third and final series of Father Ted is the most fitting tribute possible to its late star. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING
The show has already lost one team captain, EDDIE BANNON, and hasbeen devoured by critics, but producer COLM CROWLEY insists that Network 2 s Don t Feed The Gondolas is a big hit with the viewers. BARRY GLENDENNING reports.
Comedian and promoter MALCOLM HARDEE discusses his hopes for the Laughter Lounge, Dublin s spanking new 400-seater venue dedicated exclusively to stand-up comedy, and tells BARRY GLENDENNING the epic tale of the night he stole Freddie Mercury s birthday cake.
Just one meeting with Scottish anarchist phil kay is enough to convince barry glendenning that when a tree falls in the forest and nobody s there, it lands with a thunderous
crash.
owen O Neill almost drowned a promising comedy career in drink. Now, with the bottle firmly corked, his harrowing experience of alcoholism is fuelling his most powerful one-man show to date. Interview: barry glendenning.
He didn t win the Perrier Award but he was the undisputed people s, critics and peers favourite at this year s Edinburgh Festival. barry glendenning meets johnny vegas.
Not content with being one of the most successful stand-up comics of his generation, sean hughes has once again turned his hand to the world of prose with the publication of his first novel, The Detainees. barry glendenning, for his part, gives it a ringing endorsement of Eh, quite good. The Booker Prize awaits.
ED BYRNE can t wait to do The Late Late Show. Hopefully then, Irish people might realise who he is. BARRY GLENDENNING meets a young Dubliner who s being hotly tipped to win this year s Edinburgh Festival Perrier Award.
BARRY MURPHY is not the Godfather of the new Irish comedy. Repeat: Barry Murphy is not the Godfather of the new Irish comedy. barry glendenning interviews the benevolent uncle of new Irish comedy instead.
Top international journalist and acclaimed stand-up comedian BARRY GLENDENNING pens this self-aggrandising subhead before continuing his countdown to the third Murphy s Cat Laughs Comedy Festival
From Kilkenny to LA, kerbdog have been on a seven-year learning curve that's produced a powerful second album, On The Turn. barry glendenning hears how, after an inauspicious beginning, they finally got their act together. Pic: cathal dawson.
Well, so would you be if you had to wear all that hideous make-up. Barry Glendenning meets FRANK KELLY, the long-established actor and comedian who now finds himself in the curious position of being best-known for shouting 'Feck!', 'Drink!', 'Girls!' and 'Arse!' fr. Jack hackett, this is your other life . . .
Black & White Pix: CATHAL DAWSON
Every loser wins on patrick kielty s new Channel 4 show, Last Chance Lottery , and for the 26-year-old comedian, presenter and former germ , things have never looked so good. Interview: barry glendenning.
As if shifting 30,000 units of D Video and making the Tivoli their second home wasn t enough, D Unbelievables have only gone and scooped Best Comedy Act in the Hot Press Readers Poll. Here, exclusively for the fans , jon kenny and pat shortt deconstruct the subtext of Timmy Leary s big hands.
D Interview:
barry glendenning.
D Images:
mick quinn.
Ace statistician and respected political commentator BARRY GLENDENNING casts an analytical eye over the results of the inaugural HUDSON BLUE BEST OF DUBLIN POLL.
Barry Glendenning had a good idea: as a journalistic exercise – and a guarantee of public humiliation – someone should try their hand at stand-up comedy. Indeed, it was such a very good idea, that he was promptly Hot Press-ganged into doing it himself. This, then, is the true-life story of one man who stood up to be counted.
