Welcome to the house of Dom

"We have such an advantage, us American comedians. People around the world know our media. If I mention Seinfeld or The Godfather or Eminem, they know exactly what I’m talking about.

“I don’t have to change anything in my act when I play Kilkenny. Funnily enough if I go to some place like Columbia, South Carolina, I have to change it quite a lot. But not in Ireland!”
Dom Irrera is the quintessential fast-talking, wise-cracking, Italian-American stand up. A regular on chat shows such as Jay Leno, Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Oprah, he has appeared in dozens of TV comedies including The Golden Girls, King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, Caroline In The City, Drew Carey and Seinfeld among others. Movie appearances include a cameo in the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski. Those of you into afternoon children’s TV might recognise him as the voice of Ernie, the demolitions expert on Nickelodeon’s Hey Arnold and he has just completed voicing the part of Duke The Dog in Barnyard, a new animation directed by Steve Oedekerk (Bruce Almighty etc).
But it’s as a stand-up that he’s best known and he is a regular on the top rung of the international circuit from Montreal to Melbourne and of course the Smithwick’s Cat Laughs, to which he returns this year.
In fact, he tells me he has the distinction of making more appearances at Kilkenny than any other American comic. “I think this is my 10th or 11th time coming over,” he says. “I love it – it’s one of the few cities I go back to every year. I like the fact that you can walk everywhere, though I spend most of my time in Langton’s Bar. And the other great thing is I get to see my Irish friends, Dara [O’Briain], Jason [Byrne], Tommy [Tiernan], Barry [Murphy] and all the others great Irish comedians I’ve worked with.
“And I love Irish women,” he adds. “I’ve got an Irish girlfriend. Well, she’s American but you know what I mean.”
Despite his long-standing stint in Kilkenny, his tenure in the Marble City didn’t exactly get off to the most promising start.
“Well, as you know agents can be a little bit slippery at times and the very first time I was invited to do Kilkenny I couldn’t do it and I said that to my agent. But he told them I could do it and closer to the time he just offered them someone else – he didn’t want to lose his commission I guess. Richard Cook [Smithwick’s Cat Laughs founder] told me later that he was really pissed at me, as he thought I’d pulled out at the last minute. I think he even had a dartboard with my picture on it (laughs). But we made up when I explained the situation and I’ve been back every year since. Oh and I fired my agent and got a better one.”
Irrera honed his comedy chops growing up in a tough neighbourhood in South Philadelphia with his mother, grandmother, uncles and cousins all living under the one roof.
“It was a rough place where you had to either fight or use humour to survive,” he explains. “I decided to try to be funny and it worked most of the time. In fact, if I was as funny now as I thought I was back then, I’d be the funniest guy in the world.”
Growing up in the '50s, he was entranced by what is now – rightly or wrongly – seen as the golden age of American TV comedy exemplified by shows like Jackie Gleason and Sgt Bilko. “Yeah, I always related to those guys, but to me Woody Allen was the greatest stand-up ever. I loved all his stuff in the early days before he got into movies. I met him once years later and when he shook my hand he just stared straight at my shoulder, he just didn’t want to look me in the eye for some reason.”
When not travelling around the world making people laugh, Irrera lives in Los Angeles, mainly to be close to the movie and TV industry where he makes much of his living. If he had a choice which would he prefer – stand up or movies/TV?
“The thing is, people point to me and say, ‘he was on Seinfeld’ or whatever, but it doesn’t make you a better stand-up. If someone offered me a lot of money for a movie I’d do it. I like doing the voice-over stuff as it means I can wear what I like and I don’t have to worry about make-up. But TV get’s you better known. I remember when I was interviewed on TV3 in Ireland by that hot blonde. Everybody in Ireland saw me on that, people came up to me in the street.
“But I like it here in Hollywood – people don’t really don’t give a shit about you unless you get out into the regular neighbourhoods like Orange County where it’s all family values. I live off Hollywood Boulevard. I could be seeing heroin addicts and hookers and 10 minutes later I’m in the Hollywood hills where it’s pretty quiet. The heat gets to you sometimes but they keep telling me it’s dry heat out here. Yeah, well if it’s so fucking dry, how come my ass is so wet? (laughs).”