Tommy Tiernan and 'The Fellas' to headline the biggest Irish comedy gig of the year

The biggest Irish comedy gig of the year is about to hit Manhattan on June 11 when Tommy Tiernan, Ardal O’Hanlon and Dylan Moran play the Town Hall. Called simply “The Fellas – Live!,” it’s an unseen before collection of Irish comic royalty under the one roof, and a guaranteed sell out.

Tiernan, 39, who starred here last year in critically acclaimed live show, “Something Mental,” broadcast on Comedy Central, will headline the three-man gig, and that’s appropriate because he’s now the uncrowned king of comedy.

It’s an honorary title, and if you dared to suggest it to him he would probably thump you, but it’s no less true. For sheer wildness, originality and comic daring Tiernan is completely unmatched, and his live shows prove it.

But Tiernan, whose onstage character is famously uncensored, is a complete contrast when he steps out of the spotlight. Meet him for a one on one chat and you’ll find a gentle, if slightly melancholic soul.

In fact in person he’s so bookish and softly spoken that he almost gives off an Ivy League professor vibe. It’s hard to square the mild mannered, everyday Tiernan from the flailing wild man onstage, but he leaves helpful clues.

Occasionally he’ll talk about the themes that obsess him -- sex, psychology, pointlessness, the things you see in Irish country life -- and then the connection between the two halves of his private and public face is instant, like a thunderbolt.

One thing's for sure -- if you spend even a little time in Tiernan’s company you can’t help noticing how bright he is.

This is a man who does not know how to be dull anytime, anywhere, about anything. Tiernan can turn a simple question about comic timing into an impromptu history of the importance of the fool at the medieval court, and then he’ll apologize for his erudition, and then he’ll continue.

Considering all this highbrow stuff, it may surprise you to know who he most wants to make laugh when he comes to New York next week.

“I was just in Manhattan about two weeks ago,” Tiernan tells IrishCentral, by telephone from his home in Galway. “And I was walking on Broadway somewhere around Midtown when I saw two lads building a ramp for a handicap toilet.

“Next thing they’re shouting, ‘No way! Wait there! Are you Tommy Tiernan?’”

The two men turned out to be Irish construction workers from Co. Monaghan who chased him down and correctly identified him. When they got talking Tiernan discovered they were living here undocumented.

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Nster.com