Ballad Of A Crooked Man

Having graced our cover on three separate occasions, Tommy Tiernan is a big Hot Press fan. Or so he tells us anyway. “It’s such an important magazine,” the 41-year-old comedian enthuses. “I think when I was young and growing up in Ireland, Hot Press was the channel through which you received information which your parents mightn’t necessarily want you to be finding out about. It was almost like an alternative radio station or something for intelligent alternative people. There was something a little bit different about it. Now you see older people wishing they were still young and intelligent buying it.”

“Seriously, I always viewed it as a coming of age thing. Getting into Hot Press or getting on the cover was always a very positive thing. It was a sign that the cool people were taking you seriously or something. There was a certain hipness to it.”
Having said that, controversial comments he has made in Hot Press interviews have landed him in hot water on more than one occasion. “Imagine your life as a party, and there’s always a moment where you choose to piss in the sink. Every time I’ve decided to do that, Hot Press has been at the window taking photographs.”
Tiernan’s in good form, sounding more relaxed than he has in years. Possibly this is down to the fact that after a long spell on the wagon, he has recently started drinking again. How’s that working out for him?
“Fabulous! Somebody asked me was I drinking much, and I said, ‘No – only one pint at a time’. I’m really enjoying having a few pints after the show every night – and then getting in the car and driving home.”
Thinking about it, it was only when you stopped drinking that you started getting into serious trouble...
“Yeah, that’s when the chaos started,” he laughs. “I was kind of in charge of things before that. I started drinking again to regain some control over my life. I remember seeing Richard Harris on The Late Late Show, and he had given up drink for a long time. Anytime you can escape narrow definition is a positive. Anytime someone thinks they have you pigeonholed as something – or you feel you have yourself pigeonholed as something – and you redefine yourself, it’s a good thing.
“We tell ourselves stories about ourselves and we can sometimes get stuck in that narrative. I’m a born-again Christian or I’m a teetotaller or whatever. And I think being human is a lot more complicated than that. We should always resist definition. So it’s an interesting place to be. I’m enjoying it, that’s the main thing. I’m absolutely enjoying my few pints.”
Two years ago, Tiernan set the Guinness World Record for ‘longest stand-up performance’ at Nun’s Island Arts Centre in Galway. Although his record has since been broken, he maintains that the experience led him to a new style of comedic performance.
“The whole point of doing the Guinness thing was to try and develop a new style. I felt that I had got trapped in this kind of shouting, over the top, too forceful, manic style. And I was wondering how to get to the far side of it. So I kind of reasoned with myself that if I just talked and talked and talked for 38 hours non-stop in a stand-up situation, that I’d have to develop other ways of doing comedy. You can’t stay that hysterical for a day-and-a-half without going insane. So I figured I’d talk a new style out of myself. And that’s actually what happened. I didn’t realise it at the time, but nine or ten months later I was able to look back and realise that there’d been a shift in tone that I’m grateful for.”
This toned-down style can be witnessed in his new show, though he’s at odds to explain what it’s actually about. “The new show? I don’t know very much about it, and that’s what keeps me interested in it every night. It’s called Crooked Man, but it really should be subtitled Dancing in the Dark. It’s slightly beyond me. I’m not entirely sure what it’s about or if it’s about anything at all other than giving people a good night out. But I’m really enjoying doing it.”
While the economic meltdown is one of the subjects touched upon in Crooked Man, Tiernan maintains that the recession could well turn out to be a good thing when he goes to tour it internationally. “I’m about to go on tour in Australia and Canada, and I know from anecdotally and from ticket sales that the amount of Irish people out in those places now is just phenomenal. In a weird way, financially speaking, it’s probably a great time to be touring. There’s a huge amount of young people now living in Perth or Toronto or places like that. It’s going to be a great experience meeting them. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Tommy Tiernan plays Vicar Street on January 28 and 29. Check hotpress.com for archive interviews.