I met Malachy McCourt in The Village Underground Comedy Club in Manhattan. He was on before me doing his first ever stand up gig at the age of 82.
He rocked the house and was by far the most edgy and controversial act on on the night. It's just one more feather on the cap of a man who has taken life by the horns and lived every minute of it.
From dire poverty in Limerick to being a regular guest on The Tonight Show on NBC, Malachy was a huge star in the US long before his brother Frank's success with Angela's Ashes.
I had a chat with him in his Manhattan apartment.
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In episode 3 of Pod-a-Rooney I talk to Fred Cooke. Fred is one of the all round nice guys in stand up comedy.
He has a unique vulnerable charisma both on and off stage. His physicality and commitment to silliness is not contrived in any way and is laced with an emotional intelligence that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling. If I wanted to spend a few days or weeks on tour with someone, Fred would be high on my list.
He's also a great musician and we've worked together a couple of times on songs; funny songs that is. I think we should work together again if he's up for it.
We chatted for over an hour and it got a little dark I think but in a good way. I found out he is a former life guard and in fact grew up in a swimming pool before going to boarding school. Enjoy!
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In the second episode of Pod-A-Rooney I talk to Patrick McDonnell.
Patrick played Eoin McLove in Father Ted and wrote and acted in Naked Camera and The Savage Eye. He also acted in Moone Boy, Stew and onstage in John B Keane's Moll. Patrick and me go way back and we have similar experiences in getting into comedy, indeed we did two shows together in Edinburgh and were kind of a double act.
We talk about all that and becoming a professional comedian/actor, sustaining a twenty year plus career in comedy with all it's ups and downs, breakthroughs and disappointments and we never once mention his big head.
Enjoy!
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In the very first episode of Pod-a-Rooney I meet Stephanie Roche who's October 2013 goal in the WNL for Peamount United was the runner-up for the 2014 FIFA Puskas Award for the best goal of the year.
Since then she has signed for Houston Dash and has been invited to the White House by Barack Obama for the St Patrick's Day celebrations.
In the interview she talks about growing up in Artane, her early career in football, the Eric Cantona Kung Fu kick, what adrenaline can make you do and her secret life as a dominatrix ... oh no sorry that last bit is totally untrue; I don't know why I wrote that.
Oh and of course we talk about that goal!
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