Taking A Stand

“I’ve never actually done an interview before,” admits Roisin Dubh owner Kevin Healy, as he sits down to talk to Hot Press. “Other than the ‘where were you at the time the incident occurred?’ type.”

It’s not that Healy is particularly media shy. Indeed, the 43-year-old Galwegian has founded two briefly successful publications – freesheet The Word and glossy dance mag Clubbing.com – during his varied business career. A former Quays barman turned entrepreneur, he’s been involved in music, dance and comedy promotion for many years, amongst various other business activities and interests (he’s also a shareholder in Dublin’s Laughter Lounge).
We’re meeting to discuss Stand And Deliver, the new RTÉ stand-up comedy series, which was filmed over four nights last autumn in the Róisín Dubh (the theme music is a trad version of the old Adam & The Ants classic). Presented by veteran Irish comic Barry Murphy, the show features hilarious performances from the likes of Stewart Lee, Reginald D. Hunter, Jason Byrne and Andrew Maxwell, as well as from some up-and-coming newbies.
“The idea was there from RTÉ to do some kind of comedy show,” Healy explains. “They wanted to do something regional, and they said they wanted to do something that would be like the Other Voices of comedy. And Deborah Pearse, one of the producers, was here for the Galway Comedy Festival last year. She was the agent for Frank Kelly, who was performing at the festival. So we were talking over pints, which is where most of the best ideas come from, and she soon saw that the best little club in the country is the Róisín Dubh.
“So the pitch that we gave to RTÉ was basically that they were taking all of these fantastic comedians and having them do things that weren’t always suitable,” he continues. “Like Jason Byrne is a fantastic comedian and performs all over the world – and they were making him into a game show host. Karl Spain was touring with rock bands or doing internet dating. And I was saying: these guys are professional comedians who, five nights a week, stand on stage and deliver well-crafted, well-honed material. So why not just put them in a good room with a really lovely audience, point a camera at them, and let them do exactly what they do? Show them off for the talents they are, rather than trying to fit the square peg into the round hole. So from that persuasive argument, RTÉ finally went, ‘Ok, we’ll give this a try’.”
The Róisín Dubh has hosted one of Ireland’s most successful comedy nights (every Wednesday) since Healy and his business partners took it over in 2004.
“I’ve always had an interest in comedy,” he says. “Maybe it stems from being the smartest wiseass in the pub or something. When I worked in The Quays, it was always about trying to cut the customer down to size. But I’ve actually been promoting comedy since the early ‘90s. Back when we were publishing The Word, around 1991 or 1992, we had a comedy club running in Cork as well. We’ve had the Róisín Dubh for nearly six years now and we started a comedy night pretty much straightaway. So it’s about five-and-a-half years there. Before that we had one running in the GPO nightclub, which we used to own, for ten years every Sunday night.”
Although quick-witted and sharp-tongued, Healy has no interest in taking the mic himself, outside of doing the occasional introduction. “Nah, I’ve no interest in going on stage at all,” he laughs. “People have often asked me why don’t I, but it’s just never seemed to be my thing. I like to tell people jokes, but not to big rooms. I don’t like audiences – unless they’re paying into my club.”
Speaking of which, he maintains that comedy is just as badly affected by the economic downturn as any other business. “They say that comedy is recession proof. It’s not. It’s the same as anything else. Quality is what’s recession proof, and in a downturn as severe as this, people become more choosy about where they spend their money – and only quality wins out. There’s lots of little comedy clubs closing down all over the country at the moment. They’re just one-off nights and it’s just not worth it, people aren’t doing them anymore. But the quality stuff is still there – as I think Stand And Deliver shows.”
Although some major comedians are now playing stadiums, Healy is of the opinion that live comedy works best in small clubs. “You’ve got these big arena shows happening at the moment – Lee Evans in the O2 or Michael McIntyre doing Wembley – but you don’t get to see the little facial expressions or the nuances of an act in a venue that big. You might as well wait for the DVD to come out. Comedy belongs in small rooms. It belongs in 200 or 300 capacity venues, where you can see the sweat flying off Lee Evans’s back. And I think that’s the beauty of this show. Every comedian we asked jumped at the opportunity to do a filmed live show in a small room because they all understand that club comedy is where it’s at.”
Of the 18 comedians featured over Stand And Deliver’s six episodes, half are Irish but only three are female (Eleanor Tiernan, Sarah Millican and Josie Long). “Yeah, there’s only three female comedians out of the eighteen. I guess that’s probably reflective of how many women there are in comedy. It couldn’t be 50/50 because there just aren’t that many women comedians.”
Are you of the humble opinion that’s because women just aren’t all that funny?
“I’m not falling for that one!” he guffaws. “Nah, I just think they probably have better things to do.”
Stand And Deliver is on RTÉ2 on Mondays at 10.30pm