Encounter on a train encouraged Patrick Kielty to keep telling his story as his new stand up show talks borders
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It was only after funnyman Patrick Kielty got serious in two documentaries about his life growing up in Northern Ireland that he got back to stand up after a five-year break.
The 51-year-old from Northern Ireland is married to TV presenter Cat Deeley and lived for a few years in America where the couple had their two young sons, Milo and James.
But now the comedian – who grew up close to the Irish border – is returning to Inverness with latest show Borderline partly trying to make sense of Brexit’s new borders, but also looking at national identity.
“Whenever you grow up in Northern Ireland you feel that nobody wants to hear about it,” Patrick said.
“But I always remember as a kid, watching Billy Connolly on The Michael Parkinson Show – my hero.
“He was telling the whole of the UK what his life was like in working class Glasgow – and he wasn’t ashamed of it either.
“He wanted the world to know.
“And what I have learned over the last few years living in America, and with Trump – and the world becoming more polarised, with Brexit, Scottish Independence, the Northern Ireland protocol – all these things – rather than actually NOT having something to say about the wider world, maybe I should be telling a story about ‘Here’s how I grew up, here’s what was brilliant about it, here’s what was very bad about it and here’s how we pulled ourselves out of it.
“Maybe there is a message in there about who you think you are and, more importantly, who we think other people are. We did it very badly in Northern Ireland – put Post-it notes on people that said ‘Don’t tell me who you are, I know who you are’.”
In 2018 Patrick made a documentary looking at the death of his businessman father John, known as Jack, who was killed by the UFF (Ulster Freedom Fighters).
Then last year he made Patrick Kielty: One Hundred Years Of Union, exploring what Northern Ireland’s future holds.
Why did he make them?
“It was something I never wanted to do, honestly,” he laughs. “If you come from this part of the world and you have been through what my family has been through – my dad being killed – there are so many other people have been through that too that you don’t want to look like the guy bleating on about it.
“On the flip side, you become paranoid that nobody wants to hear that story. What was nice was the director of the first documentary – a guy from London – said ‘No, this is a universal story, you should tell it!’.”
And there was a thumbs up for Patrick deciding to be open about his experience in these TV documentaries from an anonymous man which moved the comedian.
“I was on the train home after a gig from Liverpool and before this guy got off at Stoke he tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at a note he’d left.
“It said ‘I’m not from Northern Ireland, I know nothing about it. But I saw your documentary, you shared your story and people need to share who they are. Keep doing it!’.”
Patrick laughed: “I was crying out the window going ‘Oh my God, that’s amazing’, while people were on their phones or having their breakfast, maybe thinking ‘Look at your man in the horrors of drink!’. So the documentaries, weirdly, gave me a confidence to get back on stage and maybe share a wee bit more of who I am in this show.”
On paper, it doesn’t sound as if Patrick’s destiny would have been comedy stand up, he wasn't the class clown as many stand ups often start out, the classroom entertainer.
"I would never be the person at school who put the duster on top of the board so the teacher got chalk all over themselves, that was never really me.
"I was the guy who was quite good at impressions on the back of the bus on the way to football matches!
"Then I was told by one of the teachers ‘If you don’t do the Christmas concert I’m going to drop you from the football team’. So I was sort of bribed on stage. So though I was reluctant to be on stage, once I got up there and the gig went OK, I went ‘Oh! I can do this!’.
"Then when I was at university, there was a keg of beer for the Fresher’s Week talent competition and I managed to win that. And suddenly you are thinking when you get up there and you are terrified ‘But there might be beer at the end of it!’.
"Before you know it, we started a comedy club in Belfast and at that stage all my other mates were trying to get real jobs and I was doing maybe two or three stand up jobs a week and was making ends meet and I thought ‘This might be a living!’.”
Patrick has fond memories of playing Inverness on his last tour: “It was one of the best gigs I ever had. It was in June and that brilliant thing where it doesn’t get dark till late – you’ve another hour of light up there than we do in County Down where I live. It’s just magical!
"So what I’m planning is, even though I'm in Edinburgh the night before and then in Aberdeen the night after, as soon as the gig is over in Edinburgh, I’m driving to Inverness that night. For an Irish man to spend some more time somewhere with golf and whisky, even though I am only there for one night, I’m going to spend two nights in the Highlands! I love it.”
Borderline: Postcard From The Edge Of The Union is at Eden Court on Thursday (June 2) at 8pm. More details: eden-court.co.uk
