Comeback girl

Deirdre O’Kane is one of our most beloved female stand-up comics – as well, of course, as being an acclaimed actress.

When not cracking up the nation on TV shows such as Paths To Freedom and Fergus’ Wedding, she’s busy treading the boards at sold-out venues from Dublin to Galway, Montreal to Melbourne. But she’s been uncannily quiet of late. Why? Well, the small matter of becoming a mother put a temporary stop to her ten-year gallop in the spotlight. The hiatus is all set to end, however, when she returns to live performance with a new show - Startled - which begins a run this month at Dublin’s Olympia theatre before heading for the Galway Comedy Festival – which is shaping up to be a real highlight of the comedy year.
“It’s my first stand-up show in two years,” she says excitedly, down the phone from sunny California where she is stirring up some TV interest (as well as catching Tommy Tiernan’s LA show). “I went off and had a baby, Holly, who is one now. I deliberately took the time off after she was born. I needed a break. You get to the point where you’re constantly performing – and you just get sick of it. I thought, ‘I’ll take a year off’, which turned out to be the best idea I’ve ever had.”
Last year, in this column, she told Dermot Carmody that she almost used her pregnancy as a way out of performing for a while. But she now reveals that her lay-off might even have been permanent – that she considered giving up comedy for good.
“It was a serious decision for me,” she says. “I genuinely thought at the time: ‘I’m not going back to performing, ever again’. But I’m very happy to be back now. Having a baby is such a huge thing for anyone, and I’m no different. It changes your life completely, and affects your perspective on things. It’s not that I came back a different comic. I’m still the same me.”
Not surprisingly, the joys of motherhood, and all that it entails, inform much of her new material. Was she the kind of person – like most of us – who had little time for kids until she had one of her own? “When they’re not yours, you don’t care that much, but when they are, you have that instinct to do everything you can for them,” she admits. “I’m not as overboard as some people – I’m fairly normal, I think. You certainly see it here (in LA), the way the children are treated like little gods.”
What about taking advice from other, more experienced mothers – was she open to any of that?
“When you’re having your first, you’re open to anything anyone says,” she laughs, “but the thing with kids is they’re all different, and nobody knows their temperament except you. I haven’t had much interference from anyone. But Holly’s been great, she doesn’t stop laughing, and she seems to understand jokes, which is kind of curious.”
The inspirational spark for Startled was, she says, the celebrity pregnancy angle and the phenomenon of “yummy mummies” – and their over-indulged offspring. “I have so much information on Gwyneth Paltrow, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Victoria Beckham and all their children,” she laughs. “I started writing it with the perspective that they were my friends.”
She also delves into some more serious issues, including the state of our health service.
“My hospital story is the one I’m most proud of,” she says. “It’s all to do with the state of the maternity hospitals, and the fact that things have not improved at all. The nurses were great, but they just didn’t have time. There’s a baby boom going on in Ireland at the moment and they were literally running around from ward to ward trying to keep up. The birth part is fine, to be fair to them, but the aftercare is just shocking. There was nothing funny about it at the time. When they say that comedy is tragedy plus time, it’s so true.
“I talk about stuff like not being able to get a sleeping tablet after midnight. I couldn’t believe it when I asked for one. It was like, [affects stern, matronly voice] ‘Sorry, there’s no sleeping pills after midnight’. But it’s not all about babies and hospitals. There’s another section in the show about couples shopping together for household goods – which I always find funny. Also, I don’t think men and women should be in cars together, e.g: 'You went a bit close to that one, don’t you think’.”
O’Kane also has ambitions to do more TV and film, and she’s actively exploring possible future roles. “TV is one of the reasons I’m here in LA, which is great for TV comedy. Seinfeld is probably my all-time favourite, and shows like Friends and Will and Grace, when they were at their peak were just brilliant. Just to be working in a team like that would be a dream come true for me. I’m also into dramas like The Sopranos and The West Wing. I’m not a big Desperate Housewives fan. I just never got into it... even though I probably am a desperate housewife.”