Gurus of Comedy

This week’s guest is Merit Kahn. Merit wrote, produced & performed an inspiring one-woman comedy show. She took all the painful stories of her life and re-wrote her story through the lens of stand up comedy. She also works in sales and marketing where she is the CEO of SELLect Sales Development. We discuss how some of the tools she has used to be successful in business has contributed to her approach to standup.

Merit details how some important techniques for getting into and staying productive in the comedy world and discussed in depth some of the topics that she covers in her one woman show.

You can find Merit : LinkedIN – YouTube

With tensions escalating on the Ukrainian border, we welcome back to the show Russian comedian and actor Denis Nikolin. Denis is back to tell us Russians aren’t scary, they do like to laugh and he even set up a course to teach people how to make other Russians laugh. Bizarre!

We also discuss, Netflix Comedy Specials, cancel culture and we discuss war, yes WAR! The war that the Australians went to with … emus.

Denis is also working on some comedy videos released online, you can find him at “Buttfuck Russia“, careful googling that, I wasn’t!

Denis previously featured on the Russian Comedy episode, check it out here!

This episode we are joined by writer, John Vorhaus. John has published a number of books based around comedy, The Comedy Toolbox, the little book of SITCOM and Comedy Writing 4 Life. John recently published his new book the little book of STANDUP.

We discuss John’s new book, stand-up, cancel culture and whether or not there should be comedy cover bands and the Bulgarian remake of Married with Children.

We are delighted to welcome New York born, but California residing improv artist Nicole Matarese.  Nicole explains some of the concepts used in the improv world.  All stand-ups should do at least one improv course to help with your crowd work. We also discuss the grown-up pain for trying to find a new place to live that comes with parking and producing content in the lockdown, online world.

Nicols is also hosts her own podcast called “Totally Recommend This, Dude” and she cohosts the podcast “Totally Toonular“. 

This episode we cross borders and cross promo. Joining me from another country but also about a 100 kms up the road is Northern Ireland based comedian and podcaster Nathan Smyth.

As a world traveller from Ireland I am often asked “What is the story with Northern Ireland?”, I was always terrified to tell people the honest truth, “I haven’t a clue!”

In this special episode, I interview Nathan and then get the shock of my life when Nathan interviews me. We discuss and clear up a lot of confusion on this small isle, will there be a future Unified Ireland following Brexit, again I haven’t a clue, but at least we know there will be comedy and I will be trolling for gigs on both sides of the border.

Nathan’s podcast is Talking Smit and can be found over on Spotify, go give him 5 stars, and sure while yer there throw us a few while yer at it!

Returning to our show we have Award-winning Irish comic Sean Begley. Sean is currently touring his one hour show, Tragic, around Ireland and found the time to come on the show and have a chat about starting back touring a show, the demands of negotiating rooms when putting on your own show. We also reminisce on what it was like gigging back in 2019, fun times!

It’s a great chat! Chat-tastic even!

This episode we have Monaghan based Stand-up Gerard Ryan. Gerard was only early into the start of gigging when lock down shut down all the comedy rooms on the island of Ireland.

We discuss what it has been like to have a creative urge to perform while being stuck away from audiences. Also the comedy gold that is created in Ireland when you move to a different county. Also, when recorded, the Dave Chappelle special, The Closer, had just come out. It has led to some animating discussions on the likes of Facebook and what is and isn’t acceptable topics for comedy.

In this show we are very fortunate to have Dublin based comedian Alex J Byrne.

Alex didn’t wait around for too long during lockdown before starting his own talk show, Le Chats, on Thursday Nights. A weekly talk show that gives an insightful look into the lives of performers from around the country of Ireland.

Alex discusses the challenges of started a remote chat show and also of his return to perfoming comedy, now that the periwinikle world is slowly coming out of its shell, Yay!

Check him out on Facebook and Instagram.

Paul Marsh is a Dublin based Comedian (Though he is from Tipperary, where the Keeshan Clan also hails from). During the early days of the lockdown he set up a group on Facebook called “Irish Dad Jokes“. It started as a small page to comment on cheesy jokes, but it’s membership has grown to over 7,000 and has become a Gladiator school to train the next generation of comedians and writers.

Paul discusses the groups unusual success, the impact of lockdown and the now reopening of comedy rooms in Ireland, getting back comedy match fit and getting a tour under way. He also talks about being a Fireman.

This episode we are delighted to welcome Benjamin Bello. Benjamin recently wrote an article for Chortle describing an aggressive audience member while he was performing on stage. We discuss what it is like to be onstage when something like that happens and what if anything can be done.

Benjamin is well known for his character President Obonjo. He descibes what it is like to perform as the character and as himself, he also goes into some detail on his experience when his character was lifted by BBC to create a new TV Show.