Deirdre O’Kane
Comedian Deirdre O’Kane is gracing our screens once again with her new comedy show. She talks to Rachel Spillane about being back in front of a live audience and what it means to be a woman in comedy.
If one thing is certain, it's that our emerald isle has a knack for producing great talent. And Deirdre O’Kane is no exception.
We’ve seen Deirdre on-screen in Moone Boy as Debra Moone, the eccentric mammy full of quick wit and biting humour, as well as Christina Noble, the fearless Irish heroine in the award-winning film, Noble. We’ve laughed until we cried watching the Drogheda native's stand-up comedy shows and, at this stage, we must all be thinking is there anything she can’t do? Well, apparently not.
¬The Deirdre O’Kane Show launched in October on Sky Max. It's a five-part series with a fresh take on the classic stand-up comedy show. Comedians Bill Bailey, Des Bishop and Catherine Bohart, to name a few, feature throughout the series, as well as brilliant performances by the talented, musical genius that is Rob Broderick, aka Abandoman.
“Sky wanted a comedy show that was female-led and my name popped up,” She explains. “ There was talk of doing either a sketch show or a stand-up show but it was Darren Smith, from production company Kite, who suggested we do a stand-up show with sketches.” – The pilot was filmed at The Sugar Club in Dublin, all the way back in 2018. Yes, that’s right, three years ago was when Sky first gave the series the green light but then of course, the pandemic hit. “In the pilot, we actually filmed quite a lot of sketches but then they were dropped.” She continues before adding wryly: “Even though they were fabulous.”
LIVE AUDIENCE
The first episode of The Deirdre O’Kane Show aired last month and was, unsurprisingly, met with rave reviews. But Deirdre has willpower of steel when it comes to googling herself: “I don’t look at anything. I don’t know what’s out there but I gather it’s good.” She laughs. “I’m at that age where I know I don’t need to go there. I don’t need to read about myself anymore.”
If you’ve ever watched a comedy show over Zoom, you’ll know that it’s not the same as being at a venue, soaking up the atmosphere around you. The series was filmed in the Olympia Theatre in front of a small number of people due to covid-restrictions. “Zoom just doesn’t work for comedy.” she says.
For Deirdre being back in front of a live audience was incredible. “It was absolutely amazing. I cannot tell you the joy it brought me and even to everybody else. I don’t think we realised how much we missed it and how badly we needed it.”
She adds: “I got in front of the live audience and I felt physical relief throughout my body. I was saying to myself, ‘Oh thank God, I can hear the noise of a crowd.’ It was emotional.”
Alongside Deirdre is a host of great comedians including Des Bishop, Bill Bailey,
Martin Angolo and rap-comedy improviser Abandoman (Rob Broderick). “Rob has phenomenal talent", she says adding; "if he explodes out of this as a big name, I’ll be a very happy woman". The thought process, Deirdre explains, was to make the show "unlike anything other previous stand-up shows have done before”.
“We knew that Rob and Abandoman were incredible. It was actually Darren Smith’s idea and I knew instantly it was inspired.” Abandoman, who interacts with Deirdre and the audience, brilliantly builds the atmosphere of what’s about to come with witty quips at audience members and improvising songs with their names.
“The show becomes fluid then, which is more craic for everyone. And that’s what a comedy club is like. There’s no point creating a stand-up show and not connecting with the audience. The audience is such a huge part of what we do – you have to make one with the room.”
WORK-HUSBAND
We’ve all heard the term ‘work spouse’ thrown about now and again. However in Deirdre’s case, her work-husband is quite literally her husband, Stephen Bradley, who directs the show.
“It’s a pretty easy working relationship because we’re both in the industry, albeit different aspects of it. We’ve been talking about work since the day we met, it’s a part of who we are," she says. “There’s no big step or transition. It’s just like leaving the kitchen and then we get paid for it,” Deirdre laughs.
It’s not the first time the husband and wife duo have collaborated on set as Stephen produced Noble, the film based on the life of children’s rights campaigner, Christina Noble. “We’re both on the same page because we have the same sensibility about work. We like the same tone and the same visuals - which is more than half the battle.
Nobody is going to be more thorough and more protective of me than Steve, which is a complete privilege. I trust him implicitly.”
WOMEN IN COMEDY
Ireland has produced some brilliant female comics and with the likes of Joanne McNally, Emma Doran and Catherine Bohart featuring throughout ¬ The Deirdre O’Kane Show, there’s definitely no shortage of laughs. But seeing these great female comics on stage made me wonder if Deirdre had found being a woman in comedy difficult at any stage throughout her successful career? “I always think that question is like being asked, ‘did you find boarding school tough?’ when I never went to day-school. I only knew boarding school. Just like I only knew comedy in a male environment, so I couldn’t say it was difficult”, she explains.
“The people I started with, I’m very close to. They’re my mates.” Deirdre laughs before admitting, “I suspect it would have been easier for me to have had another woman in the room, for sure. I was always kind of one of the lads anyway as I’m easy going in male company as well as female company. But it would have been lovely to have another woman around.”