Grace Under Pressure

Your correspondent has experienced the polarities of interviewing during his stint at Hoot Press. Several years ago, Aussie comic Kevin “Bloody” Wilson cheerfully greeted me with the words, “Good morning, you cunt!” due to my phone call interrupting his breakfast. However, the opening exchanges in my conversation with veteran Irish stand-up Brendan Grace are far more agreeable: having learned that his upcoming date at Vicar Street on October 21 takes place on the day after I turn 27, he promptly sings a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’.

No sooner has he finished than the chipper Grace is enthusing about returning to the Liberties, the area of Dublin in which he grew up.
“It’s my first time in Vicar Street – not only to appear there, but to actually be there,” he quips. “It’s right in the heart of the place I was born, the Liberties, which is very exciting. Nowadays, I live in Florida and I come back to Ireland to tour, but I’m always excited to stand in front of a Dublin audience. This particular time, according to reports, a lot of the bookings for the show are from a younger generation as well, because I’ve been around now for almost 40 years. It’s great to come back and do full houses.”
Indeed, in his time, Grace – as he discussed at length in previous Hoot Press interview – played with such legendary American performers as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr (both of whom, he commented, “had a great affinity for the audience”). This time around, will Grace be introducing any new characters alongside old favourites such as Bottler and the father of the bride?
“I’ve never really changed my modus operandi,” he muses. “The characters I do are very varied, and they’re included in the stories. Being back in Dublin now, the particular show that I’ve prepared for Vicar Street is certainly going to be one that people with identify with – because that’s the way comedy is nowadays.”
Do you feel the need to touch on the recession?
“No, I’m very positive about the whole thing,” asserts Brendan. “I come from an era when recession was the norm – we didn’t know any different. I certainly keep it upbeat; I try to make audiences feel, ‘What recession?’”
What observations has Grace made about Ireland now that we’ve come out on the other side of the economic boom?
“The country is like anywhere else in the world – it’s reeling from the shock of what happened,” says Brendan. “But Irish people are by nature very resilient – we survived the famine, Cromwell, and lots of other difficult eras. We can do it again. My show is like a pep-talk, and it’s saying to get out there and be positive. Without a shadow of a doubt, laughter is the best medicine for your mind and body.”
Does Brendan currently do much gigging in the US?
“I do gigs in various places – from Shanghai to Shinrone,” he laughs. “I’ve appeared on all the continents, and the shows I do in America are corporate shows where my Irishness is still prominent. But a lot of the stuff I do in America is to ex-pats; they’d be concerts to Irish people who over the years have been tremendously supportive. I never tire of doing my show, I love every second of it.”
Of course, one of the ways in which Grace came to the attention of younger audiences was through his role in one of the all-time great sitcoms, Father Ted. In a series full of superb guest appearances, Grace’s was up there with the best: anti-social and aggressively confrontational, his character, Father Fintan Stack, was a committed hedonist with a love of – wait for it – drum ‘n bass.
Brendan recently took part in a new a documentary on the show, which is due to be broadcast on Channel 4 on St Stephen’s Day.
“I can’t believe the amount of recognition I’ve been given as a result of playing that terrible priest,” chuckles Grace. “(Does character’s voice) Father Fintan Stack – the kind of priest you don’t want to go to confession with! I was so enthused about doing the documentary, that I actually wore the costume that I wore in Father Ted. I was raging that I didn’t get to meet all of the other characters, although I did meet Jim Norton, who of course played Bishop Brennan. I’d never met Jim Norton before, although I have always had a tremendous admiration for him. It was great to meet up and have some photos taken.”
Thankfully, Brendan’s reprisal of Father Stack didn’t include some of the character’s more unsavoury aspects, such as noisily performing DIY and playing jungle records at four in the morning (“I left the drill and the ghetto-blaster at home,” he notes), though it did afford him the opportunity to reflect on participating in a classic TV show.
“It now rests alongside the likes of Fawlty Towers and The Rise And Fall Of Reginald Perrin,” he says. “It’s there forever now. It was great to have been a part of the show and I loved every moment of doing it. The role was a totally different kind of thing for me – I wasn’t a fan of Father Ted up to that. I couldn’t get my head around it. But it was so different when I got to meet the characters – Mrs Doyle, Father Jack and Father Dougal. And of course, Dermot Morgan, bless his soul, who I’d known for a while. His passing was sudden and shocking, and it was a terrible loss.”
Moving onto to happier topics, 2010 has been a positive year for Grace, after an unsettling end to 2009 (he spent some time in hospital due to complications from diabetes). As well as looking forward to performing again in Dublin, the comedian has also been enjoying the reaction to his memoir, Amuzing Grace.
“It seemed to get a good response,” says Brendan. “It was very interesting to look back over my life and writing it was an enjoyable process. And I’m definitely going to do another book – Blackwater Press have asked me to do it. I’m thinking of calling it I Forgot To Tell Yis!”

Brendan Grace plays Vicar Street on October 21.