Neil and give praise

eil Delamere’s wry and sardonic brand of humour has seen the Offaly stand-up become increasingly popular in recent times. The year ahead looks set to be a big one for the comedian as he sets out on a nationwide tour, including six dates at Vicar Street in March and April.

Does Neil feel that a large part of his current success is attributable to his contributions to RTRs excellent topical comedy show, The Panel?
“Absolutely, there’s a no question about that,” he acknowledges. “Without The Panel, I wouldn’t be able to do six dates at Vicar Street. I mightn’t be able to do one! Although, I’d imagine I could probably do one – I probably know enough people that I’d able to get a big enough guestlist together (laughs). I might not make any money, but I could still do the gig.
“But yeah, it’s absolutely to do with The Panel, it’s increasingly popular. We’re on series five, I think, and it’s getting better and better. There are thousands of people on the waiting list to go and see the show. In fact, I saw the hotpress readers’ poll the other day and the show is right up there are as one of the most popular programmes. Without wishing to sound odd or pretentious, it seems to have struck a chord.”
Who does Neil think has been the best guest on the programme so far?
“I have to say I think Eanna Ni Lamhna has been great craic,” he enthuses. “She’s on Mooney Goes Wild, or whatever it’s called now. I think it might just be called Mooney, which is very atmospheric, a bit like Calvin Klein Obsession For Men! I wasn’t on the particular show itself, but I also thought Dervla O’Rourke was brilliant. And Howard Marks was very good too. He was really, really charming, and immediately you just thought, ‘I can see how you’ve gotten through customs all over the world, with that lilting Welsh accent’.”
Neil also recently had his first experience of presenting a TV show, stepping into that role for RTRs coverage of the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal.
“Yeah, that was really good fun,” he says, “hard work, but I enjoyed it. Last year was actually the first time they had an Irish gala, so RTÉ broadcast an hour-long special of that over Xmas. The rest of the series, which is built around the other gala performances, is coming up quite soon I think. It was interesting because you get some pretty big names presenting the gala performances. Last year you had John Cleese, Jason Alexander from Seinfeld, Drew Carey and Craig Ferguson, who presents a late night talk-show in the States.
“Because RTÉ have been covering Just For Laughs for the past few years, the show actually has quite a lot of pull. So, for example, we were able to get interview time with Jason Alexander, who was a legend. I did the interview and didn’t ask him about Seinfeld once, which he probably appreciated, since he must get asked about it at every public appearance. Even at the press conference there, it came up, and he just kind of very graciously said, ‘Yeah, nothing as good as that has come up, but I hope it does in the future.’
“We also met John Cleese as well, and Drew Carey. Drew is actually a big football fan. He went to the World Cup Final, and he’s been to quite a few Old Firm games. Although he is a Rangers fan, which probably a lot of people in Ireland won’t appreciate!”
The fact that you get to travel so much must be a nice aspect of working as a stand-up.
“It is, yeah,” affirms Neil. “I’m actually going out to South Africa for St. Patrick’s Day, as you always get offers to go places for that particular date. For instance, last year myself and David O’Doherty went to Barcelona and Madrid. I’m also hoping to go back to Finland later this year. It’s good because you also get to meet people in ways that you would never meet them if you were in business or engineering, or what have you.
“I guess at computer conferences random strangers don’t come up to you after a speech and say, ‘Hey, I’ll buy you a drink.’ Whereas, sometimes after a gig, if you’ve done well, people will come up and feel they really have a connection.”
Neil’s travels have also brought him to Holland, where he performed on Raymond’s Laat, the country’s answer to The Late Show With David Letterman.
“Yeah, the executive producer on the show saw me in Montreal in 2004,” he explains. “He asked me to do the show in Rotterdam with this guy called Raymond, who’s very famous in Holland. The weird thing about is that the whole show is in Dutch, so when I went on and did my performance in English, it took the audience a good four minutes of a seven minute slot to tune their ears to the rhythms of it.
“So for that four minutes, you’re doing it not so much to laughter as quizzical stares. But overall I enjoyed it, and I got to meet Michael Reiziger, the footballer, who was on the show too. I’ve done stuff in Amsterdam before as well.”
Just to be clear, Neil, when you say you’ve “done stuff in Amsterdam before” – you are talking about stand-up?
“For the purposes of this interview, yes!”
Neil Delamere plays Vicar St in Dublin on March 3, 4, 8, 22, 25 and April 1, before heading out on a nationwide tour. See www.comedynight.ie for details.