Eric Lalor plays Cathal Spillane in the long running soap Fair City and is a stand up comedian. His first foray into comedy was a bit unusual. In 2006, as one of the participants of RTÉ Two’s Des Bishop’s Joy In The Hood, his first ever gig was filmed on his home turf of Ballymun in Dublin and broadcast to the entire nation. Eric has been a mainstay on the Irish comedy scene since and has written and performed two solo shows Lalorpalooza and Here! No Evil. He has acted in RTE’s The Importance of Being Whatever, Love/Hate and Amber (directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan for RTE). Eric has also appeared in the short films No Messages and Breath In and appeared in the hit play Singlehood, written and directed by Una McKevitt and Dan Coffey.

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Kristin Vollset is a Norwegian singer/songwriter documentary maker and traveller who ended up in Dublin after travelling through Denmark, Holland, England and Scotland in her van. She was looking for a free spot to park her van in Dublin city centre when she accidentally reversed into a wall and broke a tail light. Then a horse came out from a hole in the wall and the rest is history. In this interview Kristin tells me how she happened upon a group of inner city lads who have a horse stables on Cork St. She ended up hanging around with these lads for the next 2 years and filmed a documentary about her experience. She wrote and recorded the song No Plan with some of the lads and the video for the song went viral. I chatted to her via Skype in her home town of Bergen.

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Kenyan comedian Njambi McGrath’s first stand up comedy gig was a disaster. In a half empty club in London, her audience was as ill at ease with her jokes about Africa as she was delivering them. McGrath persevered, in part, because of her upbringing in Kenya. "When you grow up in Africa you see people in much, much more difficult situations than you could ever be in and they just keep going,"Three years later, the thirtysomething is making a name for herself in an industry few black African women have successfully cracked. One of a rising number of African-born comedians making waves in the UK, McGrath says the shock of seeing how the continent was portrayed when she moved to England three years ago encouraged her to use a comic touch to raise serious issues. I met up with her at the Belfast Out To Lunch festival after she performed her show “One Last Dance With My Father”. The show is more than just a stand up show touching on subjects like abortion, domestic violence and the social consequences of a colonial past. It was a pleasure to chat with her. She is such a strong survivor and a courageous woman.

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From 1969 until 1991 Fiachra Trench worked in London as composer, arranger, musical director, keyboardist and record producer. In August 1991 he returned with his family to live and work in Ireland. Fiachra's film and television scores include those for Dear Sarah, Moondance, A Love Divided, The Boys and Girl from County Clare (nominated in 2005 for an IFTA for Best Music) and the major BBC documentary series, People’s Century. He has collaborated with Shaun Davey, Michael Kamen, Hans Zimmer and others on many film scores, including Twelfth Night, Die Hard and Pearl Harbor. He has conducted The BBC Concert Orchestra (with The Corrs), The Ulster Orchestra, L'Orchestra del Teatro Massimo, Palermo (with The Chieftains), the RTÉ Concert Orchestra (with Marti Pellow) and The Irish Film Orchestra. As arranger/musical director Fiachra has worked with many performers, including Altan, Paul Brady, Kate Bush, The Corrs, The Chieftains, Elvis Costello, Phil Lynott, Paul McCartney and Van Morrison. I chatted with him in Boyles pub in Slane where he spent some of his early years (in Slane not the pub).

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Andrew Ryan is one of the most exciting talents in recent years; in demand as an act and an MC at the biggest comedy clubs across the UK. Andrew’s quintessentially Irish storytelling abilities and cheeky, friendly demeanour make him a natural observational stand up. He performed his debut hour show ‘Ryanopoly’ at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2012, receiving rave reviews. In 2014 he returned with his latest show ‘The Life of Ryan’ playing to packed out rooms. In 2015 he was at the Edinburgh Festival with his show ‘Perfectly Inadequate’. Selling out his run at the Festival and having to put on extra shows. I met him for a chat at the 2016 Edinburgh festival where he was performing his latest show "Ruined". He is without doubt a sound man. Find out more about him at www.andrewryancomedy.com

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