Thy king dom come

A long-distance call finds seasoned Italian-American comic Dom Irrera somewhere in the Hollywood Hills, lying, as he puts it “on my couch in a beautiful comedic depression”. It’s 10am their time, 6pm over here. We’re not sure if you can get jetlag down a phone-line but a half-hour or so with the dead-pan and dead-funny Dom certainly keeps it at bay. For his part, he seems genuinely happy to shoot the breeze for as long as possible. “You know what I’m doing after this?” he says in a voice straight out of Goodfellas. “I’m taking half a Xanax and going back to sleep! It’s funny the image people have of what comedians do. Here’s my day: I go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Then I play ping pong, shoot pool…” How are his table sport skills then? “I’m pretty good. Do I play alone? Well, I don’t hang out in a ‘ping pong crowd’! To me, it’s a manly sport. Know what I like about it? You end up at the same place you started. With running, you gotta walk back and all that crap. A part of me knows that one day I’m going to be institutionalised so I wanna be the best guy on my floor at those type of games.” Surely it isn’t wise to get overly competitive with the mentally unstable. He takes this on board. “Was Tiger Woods a big story over there, his fall from grace?” Sure was. “I don’t know how Tiger did it. To think he could be concentrating on golf and have that many affairs. It’s much more impressive than just playing golf. Sneaking around like that, using all that sexual energy…”

Probably better to stay preoccupied with ping pong. Still, Dom playing solo isn’t what you’d expect. Surely a wise-cracking, sardonic wit from South Philly enjoys hobnobbing with celebs and that non-stop sunshine. “We have had the best weather all summer. Does it suit my sunny disposition? Haha! Yeah, that’s what I’m about. I’m more about the sunshine and giving then I am about comedy. If you notice in my act I don’t get many laughs. But people are always holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya’. I want to build confidence in them. After they see me I want them to think ‘jeez, even I can do that’. That’s how I’m different from other comics.”
As self-deprecating as they come, not many people can do what Mr. Irrera does on stage. And he must be reaping the benefits in LA. We imagine his day is actually filled drinking latte with Lady Gaga. “Yeah, that’s all I do!” he chuckles. “Hang out with celebrities. We laugh, put lotion on each other, sit by the pool and talk about how sad it must be not to live here. And then we start coughing because of the air pollution.” At least the lotion ensures they don’t get skin cancer.

“Well, it also makes it easier to make love. You must be lubricated young man, you don’t wanna get heat rash.” Good advice.
Tongue-in-cheek or not, the West Coast is a world away from his tough upbringing in South Philadelphia. “Yeah, I came from a really bad neighbourhood. It’s nice to not have to worry
about getting stabbed. It’s like moving out of Limerick. C’mon… I’m kidding!” We can confirm that he was indeed just joking. In fact, Irrera has a huge fondness for Ireland in general, and has been something of a summer feature down in Kilkenny for over a decade. He missed this year’s Cat Laughs, but is coming to Kerry. Dom notes the similarities between the Irish and Italians - that big family, Catholic thing - and always enjoys hooking up with the likes of Jason Byrne and Tommy Tiernan. “I was in Nashville this weekend and I was talking about how I can’t wait to get to Ireland so I can just be myself. Nashville is more of a foreign country to me than Ireland is. They like a guitar act with the [hillbilly accent] ‘Yee-haw! How y’all doin’?’ vibe. The Irish are witty, well-read, sarcastic. It’s all that ball-busting fun stuff. I love that. I remember being with Tommy in Galway and it was like being with one of The Beatles! I’ve seen Irish comedy develop so much over the years. Now they’re as good as anybody.” He pauses. “Don’t let them hear that I complemented them though! It’ll ruin my image!”

On the subject of grá for the Irish, Dom once mentioned in Hot Press that he even had an Irish-American girlfriend. How is she? “She’s gone the way of all my girlfriends.” Christ. Where’s that then? “The high road!” he laughs. Well, seeing as he’s now single and Killarney-bound, would he like to take this opportunity to tell the women of Ireland what he’s looking for in a mate? “Whoever she is, I would like to make her the next Mrs. Dominic Irrera. As long as she’s willing to change her name to Dominic.” Could cause confusion around the house. “It might but I don’t care. I just want to take her back here and give her a life in the Hollywood Hills. Take her out of those Irish bogs.”

When he’s not in America or popping over here, does he get a chance to do shows in other countries? In Canada he probably does his act in French, ala Eddie Izzard… “I’ll do it in English but the audience laugh in French – that ‘haaw haaw haaaw!’ thing. I did a show with a guy called Russell Peters and it’s kinda funny because he’s an Asian comedian. Now, if you bill yourself as being connected to Asia, that’s a pretty big population and landmass. It’s not just India, it’s Laos, Cambodia, Pakistan…” Surely that’s the next Dom Irrera tour right there. “Haha, yeah! I’m sure I would kill in Mongolia.‘Here’s Mongolia’s favourite comedian, from South Philadelphia…’ Mongolians love the Italians. Nothing cracks them up more than Godfather references.” Not too long ago, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson did a week of shows in Paris, with Eddie Izzard featuring heavily. Irrera himself is no stranger to Craig Ferguson’s late night chat show – surely ‘Craig and Dom In Mongolia’ is the next logical step? “Well I don’t know if that’s gonna happen. Craig is the most fun late night guy over here though. He really knows how to do improv and really listens to you. Jay Leno reads cue cards over your head. I’m thinking ‘C’mon Jay, I already know ya, look me in the eye!’.”

Aside from the successful stand up and all those appearances on US television, Dom finds his brief part in the 1998 cult comedy The Big Lebowski still carries a certain currency. “I just got a call from the people behind it, they’re having a big reunion of the cast in New York. You wouldn’t believe the amount of people that contact me purely on the basis of my minute-and-a-half. I loved working with the cast, the Coen Brothers were nice, Jeff Bridges was great and I’m thinking ‘that was a nice little fun thing’. I had no idea that it was going to explode. There are Lebowski-ites that walk around doing ‘The Dude’ talk.” Does he ever run into people dressed as faux-Irrera’s at conventions? “Nah I don’t go to the conventions! That’d be awful though, a bunch of kids dressed up as Tony The Taxi Driver!”