Fully Farrell

In the comedy Semi-Pro, opening nationwide this Friday, Irish American funnyman Will Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, the one-hit wonder singer who's also owner and coach of the fictional Flint, Michigan basketball team The Tropics. Faced with the disbandment of his squad he must take drastic - and hilarious - action. CAHIR O'DOHERTY talks to Ferrell, and co-stars Woody Harrelson and Andre (3000) Benjamin.

FROM the moment he joined NBC's Saturday Night Live back in 1995, Irish American funnyman John William "Will" Ferrell, 41, has been a star. Famed for his dead-on impersonations of Jeopardy! host Alex Trebeck, Attorney General Janet Reno and President George W. Bush, in recent years Ferrell's added a host of brilliant film roles to his rapidly filling roster in movies like Wedding Crashers, Starsky and Hutch, Blades of Glory and Zoolander.

Raised in Irvine, California in what he calls a typical Irish American family, after graduation from USC Ferrell worked for a short time as a sportscaster on a weekly cable channel show. But comedy and acting were in his blood, and as soon as he could he enrolled in a stand-up comedy workshop at a nearby community college - where he was eventually discovered for Saturday Night Live.

Nowadays he's one of the most famous actors in the world, but not many people know that he's from an Irish American family, or that he recently visited Ireland with his father to trace his family roots.

Just last month in Dublin Ferrell accepted the prestigious James Joyce Award, presented by University College Dublin, whose previous recipients have included political activist Noam Chomsky and UN weapons inspector Hans Blix.

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Nster.com