How much standup do you do now?
I do it year round and I work on it every day, [though] I’m more selective about the types of show I do nowadays. I do a fair few gigs a month, whereas I used to do 10 shows a week, which is fine when you’re starting out, but now I can treat each one as a real event rather than a routine appointment.
If you had to pick between TV acting, stage acting, standup, presenting and writing, which would it be?
It’s really hard to say. I crave the variety, I really do. I’d probably say standup as I think that’s what I do best, if I may say so. But it can be a really self-absorbed, obsessive way to live your life, whereas doing theatre is very collaborative and creative and intense, I’d hate to miss out on that. There are other mediums I haven’t tried yet, like poetry and dance. Standup is maybe a bit like extreme sports, those offbeat occupations where it takes a certain sort of person to do it. You have to invest a lot of yourself in it – and night after night, day after day, it’s probably at the expense of your health or your family life or not playing enough tennis or something. I don’t want to sound like an old prude but there are all the temptations that go with it – there was really a drinking culture around it when I started, not so much now I think. I spent a lot of my life doing that, long before Father Ted – all throughout the production of Father Ted I was moonlighting as a standup comedian, and it was marvellous, but I missed so many weddings and funerals and nights out and Champions League matches.
I’ve heard that you get very nervous before shows and have been known to crawl into bed beforehand – is that true?
I would get into bed, I’d be sick, I wouldn’t be able to eat or read or concentrate on anything – it would go on for hours. So for about 15 years I had a reputation – much-deserved – for being a nervous wreck before shows.
How did you get over it?
I had an epiphany about five years ago – almost overnight – and I’ve been fine ever since. I just thought, why do I put myself through this agony? It’s supposed to be fun, and it’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t go well. Doing theatre helped, the discipline of it, and the fact that you’re working closely with other people. You can’t let the side down, whereas in standup it’s just up to you. Fundamentally, I was a very shy and quiet person growing up, so it was just really difficult getting up on a stage. It was a perverse career choice really.
So why did you choose standup?
I don’t know. I can’t explain that. I really genuinely cannot offer any suggestions. I’ve often thought it was a subconscious attempt to conquer my greatest fears.
Which were what?
Which were speaking in public.
How ambitious are you?
Well I’m certainly not complacent. But I’ve always had a problem with striving and grasping, I’ve done my fair share of that but it’s not satisfying. To be honest I would like to do more movies, I’ve been a victim of my own success in that sense, as if you have a TV character that really endures, it’s really hard to get into film.
Has the association with Father Dougal ever felt like a burden?
Not a day goes by that I don’t think how lucky I was to get that role, but there have been times I’ve been overwhelmed by it. It was only a tiny part of my past – I spent eight months working on Father Ted over four or five years, and that was it. I’ve done plays and dramatic roles and reasonably robust standup comedy, I’ve done documentaries, written a novel which is … pretty dark in places, so I’m doing my bit to put some daylight between me and Dougal. The public need to do their bit now.
It’s 17 years since Dermot Morgan [Father Ted] died – what do you remember about him all this time on?
He was a decent guy, he was muddling through like the rest of us, I enjoyed working with him and we got on pretty well off-set as well, we played five-a-side football together … I find it really hard to encapsulate our quite complex relationship in a nugget. You’re thrown together in these situations and there are strong personalities, it’s a very creative environment. He was a very high-energy bloke, he could be quite manic at times and he could wear you out quite frankly. Things were a little more fractious in series three when the novelty wore off, but we never really had a falling out.
His death was a complete shock. It really made me sit up and take stock. Me and my wife and child holed up in a hotel for a few days afterwards, there was a lot of soul-searching about what I wanted from life. I guess it was around then I realised that career wasn’t everything.
Given your father was a politician, is there a political side to you?
There probably is, not in a flag-waving way, I wouldn’t be a member of a party or be hidebound by an ideology, but I am interested in politics and the issues of the day. So in Ireland we’ve got the marriage equality referendum coming up and I’d be supportive of that. I have a certain sympathy with politicians having lived with one. I’ve seen how no matter how earnest or driven or energetic they are, it’s still difficult to change things. I have been encouraged to go into politics, but I don’t think I could make a contribution, it suits me better to be sniping from the sidelines.
• Ardal O’Hanlon performs at British Summer Time, Hyde Park, London, on 25 June
