Straight TALKIN

It s taken a few (mostly deserved) critical beatings in its time but it seems RTE has, for once, got it right by bringing us Straight To Video, the new six-part comedy drama series currently running on Network 2.

Written by Galwegian comedy writer and stand-up comic, Karl MacDermott, the series takes the form of six separate spoof video diaries that explore in a subtle, deadpan way Irish personality traits and cultural stereotypes.
We ve already seen Mikel Murfi carry Anna Manahan on his back for the inaugural World Mother-Carrying Championships and Fair City s Charlotte Bradley give Bairbre Ni Chaoimh a rude awakening in the episode, Friends For Life , while further programmes will involve actors of the calibre of Milo O Shea, Pat Shortt and Des Keogh. MacDermott himself stars in an episode with Dublin comedian, Mark Doherty, about a failed writer who uses a camera to try and convince his far away parents that his life in Ireland isn t such a mess.
The comedy in Straight To Video is more restrained and naturalistic than, say, Father Ted and represents an original and welcome addition to Irish television s comedy canon in terms of its style and form.
Myself and the series director, Martin Mahon, had the idea of perverting the video format, says MacDermott, and making a fictional video diary with comedy stuff going on behind it. RTE had Citizens last year, but by and large that format hasn t been used in this country.
I wanted to be true to the characters. Maybe the stuff that goes on behind them is a bit wacky but the characters themselves are real. So I d often get rid of a gag line cause I thought it would hurt the overall picture. Most of the performances are very deadpan.
I think the director did a very good job in making it visually interesting given the restrictions of the long takes. We were trying to pretend these were real people so we don t have the cut-aways and reaction shots and all that. We wanted an authentic video diary with fictional characters. It s not manic, wacky, crazy comedy.
MacDermott is a veteran of the Irish comedy scene, having served his time as a stand-up in The International Bar s Comedy Cellar when it first started a decade ago, doing slots alongside the likes of Ardal O Hanlon and Kevin Gildea. There was an Edinburgh Fringe Festival show deliciously titled An Afternoon With Klaus Barbie s Pen Pal and a long stint in London trying to make it as a stand-up.
He fared better as a comedy writer for radio, receiving critical plaudits for a series he wrote for BBC Radio 4 called The Mahaffys. He s currently got a number of other projects up for consideration by the suits in TV; meanwhile he s back on the Dublin stand-up circuit fine-tuning his new act.
I m doing a new character called Johnny Scillaci, he explains. He s a sort of New York wise guy living in Dublin a Joe Pesci-style character here on the witness protection scheme! So he s got a new shiny suit and a big orange shirt with big collars.
And I ve got a gun on stage I keep it in my pocket just in case things get out of hand. It s great. If people start giving me trouble, I play a game: it s called shoot the heckler !
Given that he himself played a part in the genesis of the Irish comedy scene in the late eighties/early nineties, how does MacDermott view the current crop of hopefuls treading the boards?
In some ways it s great because it s an industry now and there s more work for a lot of the younger fellas starting off. When it started off say the years between 1989 and 1994 it survived because of a few really enthusiastic people like myself, Mr Trellis, Alex Lyons and Dermot Carmody and we did a lot of experimental stuff. A lot of it was very shoddy but some of it was really funny.
Now it s an industry and there s much more pressure on the young guys doing an open spot in The Cellar because they mightn t get another open spot for six months. Then you get your five minutes in the Laughter Lounge but if you die once there, that s it they mightn t book you for another two years.
So a lot of acts become homogenised and they only do stuff that they know is going to work mainstream, laddish, tabloid humour. There s very few individuals doing their own thing. That s not to blame them it s because they can t really afford to take chances with a unique comedy perspective.

Straight To Video is on Network 2 every Wednesday at 10.20pm until October 11th.