"No I'm Fine" - Michael Redmond on Father Ted, Burnout and the Boy on the Bike

Today we are with Michael . Hello, Lee. How are you doing

Lee: Okay. Today we are with Michael . Hello, Michael.

Michael : Hello, Lee. How are you doing?

Lee : I'm very well, thank you.

Michael : Very hill.

Lee : Thank you. Welcome to the sunny, merry Hill. Well, we might just carry straight on from there. It's a pleasure to. To meet you, Michael. Thank you for inviting me to your home.

Michael : My pleasure.

Moved to Glasgow in 1998 after 10 years in London

Lee : Now, I'm going to start with. We said we're in Mary Hill in Glasgow.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : Originally from Dublin.

Michael : Yeah, yeah.

Lee : Then we're in London for 10 years.

Michael : Over 10 years, yeah. Yeah.

Lee : Moved to Glasgow in 1998.

Michael : Well done.

Lee : What your research is what made you stay, Maybe stay.

Michael : Well, children really had the reason. Part of the reason we left London was, I'd kind of. I was going to be fed up to the circuit anyway. We had twin boys and, neither of us twins. Yeah.

Lee : Oh, wow.

Michael : I was 44 as well, so they were my first children.

Lee : That was a bit of a culture shock.

Michael : Bit of a shock to the system.

Lee : Yeah.

Michael : Because, I mean, being a comedian, I was just so used to getting up at any time. I watched, Yeah. Going to bed.

Lee : And that doesn't happen anymore.

Michael : That didn't happen anymore, no. Morris became a house husband, really. But we know family in Glasgow. Sorry. In London and my ex had a family in Glasgow. We put up a few times. I quite liked it, you know, so we just kind of decided to go to Glasgow. More domestic. choice wasn't a career move. Well, there's very little comedy, in Glasgow at the time, though. The stand wasn't in Glasgow. I think it was in Edinburgh, but it wasn't in Glasgow.

Lee : That's right, yeah.

Michael : so there was nothing really, you know, so it was more a domestic

Lee : move than a domestic move.

Michael : Yeah.

You described feeling burnt out after 10 years in London comedy

Lee : Well, which brings me on to. You've obviously famously played Father Stone.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : In Father Ted. I wanted to touch on burnout in comedy.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : Because you described that you were feeling burnt out after 10 years in London.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : And I wonder what that actually felt like. Was it a gradual thing or was there something specific that happened when you went enough?

Michael : No, it was gradual. Yeah. And I think it was kind of. It wasn't. Wasn't just Bernard. It was kind of like, It wasn't a character I played. It was more. It was kind of a strange Persona where I wore a Mac and it was actually quite strange. It was clearly partly me. It wasn't a character.

Lee : But I was going to come on to this.

Michael : When I thought of the. What are you doing? My garden gag.

Lee : Yeah.

Michael : That was kind of the pinnacle. I couldn't Go any further. I couldn't be. Couldn't get up to any more mischief than standing in people's gardens. Well, kind of was running out of material really. As well.

Lee : Stuart Lee.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : famously said that he thought that was the best opening. Opening line.

Michael : Yeah. Yeah.

Lee : And then there was the whole Joe Pasquale thing.

Michael : There's another storey to that job as quality.

Lee : Is that.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : Should we just explain the joke first?

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : You would come out in a rain Mac.

Michael : Yeah. And.

Lee : And obviously big moustache.

Michael : Yeah. Just.

Lee : And stand in silence.

Michael : Just looking. Looking very bewildered with life, really. I used to get it out, but just for some reason. luckily they just laughed when I came on stage. Yes. I honestly looked. He just looked bewildered and lost.

Lee : Strange.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : Yeah.

Michael : And you're not just strange, but kind of like. Just bewildered as well. Yeah, yeah. And kind of the. Kind of. So, yeah, I've just waited a couple of minutes, assuming I was getting laugh. I didn't always get enough. I didn't get enough. I wouldn't wait. But, yeah, I would just say, People often say to me, hey, you. What are you doing in my garden?

Lee : You can't beat that.

Michael : No. So I. Yeah, I couldn't. Couldn't match that, really.

Lee : So then how many years later at the Royal Variety Performance.

Michael : Yeah, the thing. The thing about that. You see people on television ripping off circuit comedians. But I'd already done it on television.

Lee : Yeah.

Michael : I don't. Friday Night Live, I think.

Lee : Yeah.

Michael : Yeah. Or maybe it was Clive Anderson.

Lee : Clive Anderson. M. Yeah.

Michael : So he just looked stupid because everybody knew as my gag.

Lee : So.

Michael : Yeah. I mean, I wasn't aware of it. It was only when.

When Stuart wrote the article, I hadn't seen it, you know

When Stuart wrote the article, I think, because I hadn't seen it, you know, he just did a lovely lampoon of it. It was great.

Lee : It's pretty. I watched it this morning, actually.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : Because I've watched it a few times. It's just brilliant.

Michael : He's brilliant. Sort of extending things like that.

Lee : Yes.

Michael : You know, and bring it to a ridiculous levels. Which he did.

Lee : Yeah. If anyone hasn't seen it, watch the clip of Stuart Lee doing it because he. He talks about you and then he talks about the fact that Joe Pasquale's nicked it.

Michael : Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Lee : And the thing is that if. If someone saw Joe Bisquale in their garden, they wouldn't say, get out of my garden.

Michael : So what is the.

Lee : They say, why is J in my garden?

Michael : Yeah. The thing was, there was this strange guy in the Mac saying, people, obviously it doesn't work famous, you know, yeah,

Lee : well, we're eating up the questions here. What were we talking about before Joe Pasquale?

Michael : That's a good question. Getting old.

Lee : Burnout. Burnout. You move to Glasgow.

Michael : Yeah, yeah.

Lee : What? I was going to tell you that

Michael : other thing about jokers.

Lee : Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry.

Michael : Yeah, it was, It was. It was a few years after the Stewart had written that article. And, I turned on television one day. There was some chat show and it was Joe. Not Joe o', Connor, Des o'. Connor. and some woman used to do this chat show. I didn't turn it on for that, but that was on. And he was interviewing this young guy who's about 15. It became clear during the interview that this young guy wanted to be a comedian. So Jessica Connor says, well, tell us one of your jokes. And he told one of my jokes. But you know who he was? He was Joe Pasquale's son. No. Yes.

Lee : No way.

Michael : Yes. He wanted to be a comedian. I don't think he ever did. I think he became an actor. It was one of my gags.

Lee : Gift that keeps on giving.

Michael : He obviously had my gags up on their kitchen board.

Lee : Wow. Ah. I mean, they say that flat. Flattery is what's. What's the words?

Michael : Yeah, yeah, up to a point. Yeah, exactly.

Lee : But if somebody's just nicking your material,

Michael : if the entire family is nicking your

Lee : material, passing down your jokes from generations.

Michael : Yeah, yeah.

Lee : Generations of Pasquales. Just. Yeah. Well, I'm quite pleased that he didn't make it, then.

Michael : Yes.

Lee : He's just a. He's just an actor.

Michael : Exactly. I'm not even sure if he is an actor. I don't know. He didn't call himself Pasquale. He called himself some other name.

Lee : Ah. You see, he tried to fly in under the radar.

Michael : Yeah, exactly.

Lee : That's brilliant.

Father Ted actor Dermot Morgan died very soon after filming

Right, okay, so we've got generations of Pasquale's nick in your material.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : Was going to come on to Dermot Morgan.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : obviously, famously Father Ted himself, who, if I'm right in thinking that he didn't. He died, like, it was very soon after filming. Like the last.

Michael : Yeah, just after I came to Glasgow, in fact.

Lee : Last episode.

Michael : Yeah, it was 1998. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lee : And I read somewhere that you'd said that Dermot, could never sit still.

Michael : He's very.

Lee : Never relax. Always moving.

Michael : Well, I knew. I knew when you.

Lee : Before.

Michael : Yeah, yeah. We were mates in Dublin. Yeah. I did some TV stuff with him in Dublin, which, is part of the reason I came to London. In the end, because it didn't work out. He was. He was a really good mate of my, brother's best mate. That's how I got to know him from university together and we used to play football together and all that kind of thing. But, yeah, he couldn't. He would, Probably, I think it was even worse than ocd. He just. We'd be in the dressing room, he says, oh, you know, he'd be. Actually have his kit ready to go.

Lee : And they said, oh, really?

Michael : I better just cheque my car. And he'd actually take his kit off again and put his clothes back on and go and cheque that his car was locked, that kind of thing. Then he'd come back again. He just couldn't, you know, he's just all over the place if he went for a drink in a pub. So, okay, let's. Let's go to this place now and let's need to have another drink. Let's go here. Couldn't sit still. Just, possibly. Maybe that's why he burnt out. I don't know.

Lee : Well, I say it's almost like you say it can't switch off.

Michael : No, it couldn't.

Lee : Just that whole thing about you being burn out on the circuit. Father Ted co star Frank Kelly.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : You played Father Jack, said Dermot's mind was mercurial. I think he was a kind of comedic meteor that burned himself out. Yeah.

Michael : It could be him.

Lee : And I wonder, like you say, you being. Whether that's a whole comedy thing, whereas you, you know, you burnt yourself out and it was a contributing factor. And like I say, he couldn't kind of switch off. And I wonder whether that says something about comedians.

Michael : I think it is, to extent. Yeah. I mean, you can't. I mean, certainly when I was doing it, it was very hard to switch off because it becomes your total 100 focus.

Lee : Yeah. Yeah.

Michael : Because, you know, you're doing places like the Comedy Store and genres, you. You can't just go into the same material all the time. You have to change over and you're constantly looking for more material. So it becomes your life, basically. It does.

Lee : And it's that instant feedback, I guess, of either, success with laughter or failure when it's just.

Michael : That is the scary nothing. That's the scariest thing about trying out new material. Yeah. It's terraflow.

Do you know what Frank Kelly's first film role was

Lee : Well, my fun fact randomly found out this morning that Frank Kelly. Do you know what his first film role was?

Michael : No.

Lee : He was the prison officer in the Italian Job.

Michael : Was he? Yes.

Lee : Uncredited yeah, there you go. So there you go.

Michael : He's quite, he's quite well known in Ireland as well. You know, he was before Father Chad, he had a radio show called, whatever it was called, slightly satirical, that kind of thing. But he's very funny. He's very talented man. You wouldn't know that from just Father.

Lee : He didn't have much dialogue.

Michael : No. Yeah, I'm sure because he was, he was a classically trained actor as well. So he probably got very bored doing Father Chat, I'd imagine because, you know, one dimensional but paid well, I suppose. So he probably just took it.

Lee : Yeah.

It took me a long time to decide to become a comedian

So coming back to comedy and anxiety that you said you were terrified on stage. You never made eye contact with the

Michael : crowd when I started. No, I didn't know.

Lee : and I just wondered, how does someone who's terrified of performing do five gigs a night?

Michael : Yeah, well, I mean it's, it's. The thing is that it took me a long time to decide to become a comedian. It wasn't wasn't something from my early age because, I mean when I was in my teens and twenties, the thought of standing up on stage or even standing in front of people and talking would. I just would have dismissed it completely. And I wasn't a, I wasn't a kind of a performer. I wasn't a total introvert either, but I certainly was an extrovert. Yeah, I could be funny with my mates, but I wasn't the type that would walk into a room.

Lee : Yeah, I was going to say, were you funny at school?

Michael : Yeah, only within my m. Mate with. With a sort of select few. I wasn't kind of, you know, Mr. Funny man to everybody. Just, just funny to people that I knew. Would we have like minded people? I suppose, put it that way. Yeah. So it took me a long time. I mean the, the process was. I started writing stuff for for radio in Ireland. There a guy called Mike Murphy who used to do a radio show in the morning. It's kind of like Terry Wogan, that kind of playful kind of. And Dermot used to do that as well. Dermot started off doing that and he suggested that I do it. So I just wrote sort of topical gags, that kind of thing. And he started reading them out. So that's kind of thought, well, I could do something here. But I still only saw myself as maybe writing stuff. I never thought that I would perform. And then, Dermot was on some TV show in Ireland and they eventually offered him a television show, sketch show. And because it was Meitzer and we did things together. I got a part in that and we're filming for over two months, you know, got paid for filming and everything. And then, yeah, he's waiting for it to come out and was just waiting and waiting and waiting. Eventually he was called in by the police and said, they're not, gonna put it out there. they're just gonna put it in our, special.

Lee : Right.

Michael : Which is no use, really, if you've done Supposed to be six. I mean, I'm sure all the sketches weren't brilliant, but back then, for an rte, it was still probably better than anything else they'd ever done, you know. So at that stage I thought, well, you know, nothing is going to happen here. Because I thought if that came out, then I could have a career. Yeah.

Lee : You know, to be the springboard.

Michael : Yeah, no, not as a stand, because still wasn't thinking of Standard, but I was just sort of thought, you know, be on. On telly kind of doing stuff. Yeah. Funny stuff with Dermas or whatever. You know, the guy set up a comedy circuit for a while. It only lasted about six months, but it was around near where I lived. And so I decided to give that a go. And it kind of went reasonably well, you know, but it only lasted about six months and then it petered it because there wasn't enough comedians and there wasn't enough audience. So I kind of stuck to that. Then I think I was just on the dole for about a year, but then by quizzes, I met a guy called Kevin McAleer. I don't know if you've heard of him. He's another Irish comedian she'd actually Google as, Kevin McAleer, the owl. Owl sketch. Owl, slides.

Lee : Owl slides.

Michael : Yes, a slide of owls. And it's just. I think it's just pure genius. Okay. Anyway, I just. He. He had done the little circuit in Dublin when I was doing it. I just bumped into him in town and he'd already gone to London and he said, there's a comedy circuit over there, you should go over. Because I told him I was sort of on the door and didn't know what I was doing. That's when I. Basically when I decided I was just gonna go for stand up. But that was. That was almost eight years after I started writing this stuff for radio.

Lee : Okay.

Michael : So it was very, very slow, gradual process because it wasn't something that I dived into. Just kind of just forced to do it in the end.

When you started out comedy was totally different to what we do now

Lee : So how old were you at that

Michael : point then I was 37.

Lee : Right, okay.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : A late bloomer.

Michael : Yeah, very much. And also because when I was growing up, there was no, there's no sort of sort of comedy we do now. It's just your, you know, your workman's clubs where they did mother in law jokes and you know, and Patty. Okay. Patty and Casey on the editing site in Dublin are in, in London, you know, that's sh. So the standard comedy didn't really come into my head, to be honest. You know.

Lee : No, I would just, it just reminded me that watching that clip this morning, that, Jimmy Carr. So Jim Davidson, he got in a spat with Jim Davidson because Jim Davidson had nicked one of his jokes. Stuart Lee says if, if, if, if Jim Davidson is Nick, then you probably need to be writing some new material.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : And also the one thing you can say about Jim Davidson's contribution to comedy, he's not phased by the meaning of duality.

Michael : No, indeed.

Lee : So Jim Davidson took it very literally. Whereas.

Michael : Yeah, anyway, those comedians those days, they, they didn't write the material. They just, just, there's just jokes going around. they didn't think that, you know.

Lee : Yeah, they weren't coming up because I

Michael : remember I did a gig in Liverpool once. this community called Tim Clark used to run a gig up in Liverpool. And he put, he put one of the mainstream comedians on. I forget his name. It's called Chubby something. It wasn't Chubby, it wasn't Chubby Brown. You know those names. We were having a drink afterwards and he said, he said to me, that gag you do, I can't remember what it was. He says, I use that. That's, that's a great gag. But he wasn't trying to be funny,

Lee : but he just thought, you just borrow it. I love that.

Michael : That's a good gag.

Lee : Yeah, I'll use that.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : The, the precursor to Joe Pasquale.

Michael : They just didn't, they just didn't understand that you can't. That we sort of spend hours every day thinking of material M. To them it was just a joke that's floating around.

Lee : I'll have that.

Michael : I'll just grab that. Yeah, yeah.

Lee : But then like I said, we mentioned earlier when we were speaking that comedy kind of changed when Bedila Newman doing the O2. And all of a sudden comedy's the new rock and roll.

Michael : Yeah. Yeah.

Lee : And, people think, oh, we can make money out of this.

Michael : Yeah, indeed. Yeah.

Lee : And then the whole landscape changed.

Michael : It changed. I mean, I'd already left London. I Think at that stage it was kind of so. But, I mean, I knew. I knew. I knew what was happening. Obviously, when I started, it was a totally different. People were just. Just doing it for a bit of fun, I think, really, to a large extent. I mean, there was a bit of. Obviously, a career in the back of your mind, obviously. But it wasn't a. Kind of a big thing around.

Lee : This is gonna.

Michael : Yeah, it's gonna make me a millionaire. I mean, I was, As far as I'm concerned, I mean, I've been on the door in Dublin and if I was getting 30 quid for a gig, I was very happy.

Lee : Happy with that. Yeah, yeah. Going slightly left field.

Was the connection between Father Stone and autism made clear to you

One of the things I noticed when I was doing my extensive research.

Michael : Yes.

Lee : Was the connection between Father Stone and autism.

Michael : Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a very strange thing. The first time it hit me was I maybe slightly autistic myself. I don't know. I haven't been diagnosed as autistic. I don't. I don't think I am autistic, but I kind of. I probably on,

Lee : Tendencies. Yeah.

Michael : On the cusp of it. Maybe a lot of people are here as well as. I don't know. Yeah. The first thing I was, I was back home in Dublin. I stay with my sister and there was a park nearby and we were just walking down to the town. This father and his son were cycling by and the son actually jumped off his bike. I thought he'd fallen off or something like that, but he came up to me sort of with these bright eyes and he said, father Stone. And he was kind of shaking and it was really strange. It was sort of.

Lee : Wow.

Michael : Sort of. But, well, it was more than just kind of starstruck. There's something. I knew. There's something strange about it. And the father explained to me that his son was autistic, but he really identified with Father Stone. Because you're in this sort of world of your own, you don't really know what's going on outside. You just. And my sister also taught, autistic kids, so she kind of recognised that he was autistic. And. And there was also another. Some other incident, I can't remember where, but I think someone wrote to me, said, my son is autistic and would you mind sending a message as Father Stone? So they asked. A lot of autistic people identified with Father Stone as well. I suppose he was autistic, really, Father Stone, wasn't he? Yeah.

Lee : He walks into a room, he doesn't quite Know what to say does he can't really communicate and I just wonder.

Michael : He doesn't understand that he shouldn't. People don't want him to live when

Lee : he's on the toilet.

Michael : Yeah. yeah. So he just lives in his own word. Doesn't relate to other people really.

Father Stone came about when you were doing stand up

Lee : How much of Father Stone was you?

Michael : I mean, it was pretty partly me because the, the, the reason I came about was I was doing a show in the. When I was doing standup, I was in the Bloomsbury Theatre with Dylan Moran and Arlo Hanlon. In fact, I remember we were in the. The foy afters and these two guys came up to me that I'd never seen before and said, we're writing a sitcom about priests on an island off the west coast of Ireland. We might have. Apart from you. And I thought this sounds, bloody awful because they were, they were on. No, I mean I think they were. I think they were writing sketch stuff for sketch shows, but I didn't know their names. Okay. There's two blokes that I never met before. It's about six months after I was invited into. It was Hatrick, I think. Yeah. And it was Jeffrey Perkins, the producer and the two writers. And it wasn't, it wasn't really edition. They're going to give me a few lines. It was just kind of just sitting around the table. It wasn't kind of like I was on my own with spotlights coming. It wasn't a proper audition really because I think they'd written the part for me because they'd seen my stand up after.

Lee : Okay.

Michael : So they thought he's perfect for Father Stone because I used to just stare at the audience a lot in pause. And it wasn't, wasn't a deliberate thing. It just came about because I would deliver one, one liner and people just laugh. And then I think some people would get it immediately, then others would take, you know, a few seconds, then not more would take. So it kind of laughter usually started rippling m. So I would just, just stand there and wait for it to stop. So it wasn't the kind of thing, it wasn't a deliberate ploy where I. I'll just stand and pause. Yeah, it just happened because it took a lot of people some time to

Lee : get the job, take some confidence to do it.

Michael : But it wasn't, it wasn't really. People think, yeah, that took nerve. Kind of like, nerves to see just standing there. But it wasn't. I was just waiting for the laughter to stop. I wasn't Thinking this is very brave. You know, I just stare at them. Yeah.

Lee : It's funny how that sort of just I guess came naturally.

Michael : Yeah, it did, yeah. It was just one of those things.

Lee : It's not, you know, when you've, when you've done, you've been writing your comedy, you then decided to do stand up.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : I just wonder, I'm sure that you didn't go, all right, so my act.

Michael : No, no, no.

Lee : I'm gonna go out and I do a one liner and then you're gonna stand.

Michael : No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Lee : Look bewildered.

Michael : Yeah. I kind of knew this wearing the Mac would be funny because it, that's a good show I did with Dermot. I used to wear Mac. I used to do a kind of a trade union leader or something, who was trying to be very erudite but kept getting all the words wrong. Right. And I kind of wore a Mac for that. Yeah. So I kind of knew it looked, visually it looked funny. Yeah. So that's why, that's why I wore the Mac. Basically when I did stand up, I thought cuz it, I would look funny to start off with, you know, because I was terrified of going on stage. I mean the my heart would be pounding every time I went in and I wouldn't look at the audience either, I would just stare straight ahead. I was terrified of them.

How was it doing television? I mean, I found television easy

Lee : So how is that different then for obviously you've done, you've done stand up, you've looked or not looked at the audience and then you do. How was it doing television?

Michael : I mean, I found television easy, you know, I never had any problem doing television because there's no real pressure, to be honest, you know. Yeah, you just a camera there, you

Lee : know, just camera there, there's less people and you just do it again if it's.

Michael : Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I always found television because I did a thing recently, in Northern Ireland. It was written by the same woman who wrote Derry Girls how to get

Lee : to Heaven for Belfast. Saw it and I saw you pop up and I went, ah, yeah, here's Michael. Yeah, I loved it.

Michael : It was good because when I went in, I had the script, I said to her, do you mind if I sort of play around with it? She says, no, just do what you want. I really like your stuff. So. But I mean, I remember standing there, you have all this crew around you and everything, but I just felt totally relaxed if I was doing standup, trying new material, which in a way I was, cuz I was putting bits in that hadn't been written. Not an awful lot, but just bits and pieces.

Lee : Yeah.

Michael : But if. If that was stand up, I'd be terrified. Is this going to get an offer?

Lee : Not.

Michael : But I wasn't. Wasn't terrified.

Lee : And you didn't really like. You didn't really, audition for that then, really.

Michael : No, they didn't ask me to. Which is amazing. I couldn't believe. Yeah. Because. Yeah, I got a. I got some email from the casting agency in Northern Ireland, said M. Lisa McGee's written this thing. Would you be interested in a part. There might be a part for you or something like that. yeah. So I said, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Because I thought Derry Girls was brilliant.

Lee : Derry Girls is fantastic. so hopefully there'll be a series two of.

Michael : I hope so. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. It all depends on Netflix, I suppose. Certainly deserves it, I think.

Lee : I would imagine it's.

Michael : She's left it open for a second series anyway. Definitely there is. There is a hook. Yeah. So, yeah, I hope so. Yeah. Because I'm not doing this.

Lee : Just talking to me.

Michael : Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Just your podcast.

One of your jokes is that Dublin is a village

Lee : So we've done. So one of my questions was Stuart Lee. We've already done Stuart Lee. We've already done Joe Pasquale again. My garden. One of your jokes, I was going to say was you saying about you're fed up with Londoners thinking that Dublin was a village.

Michael : Oh, yeah. Yeah. Ah.

Lee : And everybody knows each other.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : And I'm sure knowing. I'm assuming you know Sha Cochran. And then the joke is that you do know Sean Cochran. Where did the Sha. Is he. Do you. Is there a Sean Cochrane?

Michael : There will be. Cochran and Sean are both quite Irish now. But yeah, that's what just came about. But I don't know anybody called.

Lee : You don't know anyone called Sean Cochran. So. So while I was moving on to. And we. We touched on this when we spoke earlier that I used to date a girl from Dorky.

Michael : Yeah. Yeah.

Lee : Which for those who don't know. Well, I described it as the bear's

Michael : den of it's higher restaurants.

Lee : So when. When I went to meet the Santrope. so when I went there to meet her family, literally on the opposite corner was Eddie Irvine, one of. One of Eddie Irvine's many houses.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : Over the Edge was.

Michael : It's like a bay in Italy. I forget what it's called.

Lee : It is.

Michael : It is that road. Vio Road. That's what it's called.

Lee : Which.

Michael : Which is Vico is. Comes from the Italian. It's called Vico Road.

Lee : Okay.

Michael : Sweeps along over the coast. Yes.

Lee : So I'm. What I was going to ask was on the basis that you know Sean Cochrane.

Lee : Then surely that means that you know and.

Michael : Yeah, I don't know them.

Lee : You m must. Yeah. You know, Dublin's such a small m place, everybody proud to know them.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : Did you. Did you also know that Dublin. Fun fact number two, the Dublin, has got the largest population growth in Europe?

Michael : I didn't know that.

Lee : It just keeps Dublin and Dublin and Dublin. Now I don't know who I've nicked that joke from. It wasn't me and I apologise. I hope it was Joe Pasquale.

Michael : You know that Dublin actually is.

Lee : Blackpool is what? The name of Dublin.

Michael : Dublin is Blackpool because I doubt it because the original Dublin, originally called Dove. Lynn Duv is black and Lynn is pool.

Lee : Ah.

Michael : When the Brits came they couldn't because BH is F in in Gaelic, so it's Dove. But the Brits couldn't get the. Just got a double.

Lee : Bloody Brits again.

Michael : Come on over like a Scottish Dublin. Yeah, yeah. So that's. So it is. It was originally Blackpool.

Lee : Blackpool.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : Ah, yeah. I don't. Have you ever been to Blackpool?

Michael : You must haven't. You've never been to Blackpool.

Lee : Absolute.

Michael : Yeah, I believe so. I remember I did a. I did a gig with Frank Carson once in Glasgow. He goes for him at the Kings and he says, have you ever been to Blackpool? I said no, you have to go. It's fantastic.

Wonder whatever happened to Jimmy Cricket

Lee : Really.

Michael : I knew it wasn't you.

Lee : No, I've only been once and it was awful.

Michael : It sounds dreadful.

Lee : Was Frank Carson. Was he the No, getting confused. It's the.

Michael : It's the way I tell him. It's the way I tell him.

Lee : Was he the one who used to wear the right welly on his left?

Michael : No, that was Jimmy Cricket.

Lee : Jimmy Cricket, yeah, yeah. Jimmy Cricket, yeah, yeah. Wonder whatever happened to Jimmy Cricket.

Michael : He's still gold. I think he had a daughter that started doing comedy. I think he was based in Manchester

Lee : as nicked his jokes. Didn't. Didn't use the second name Cricket. So he went under the radar.

Michael : Wow.

Lee : Well, there you go.

Michael : Jimmy Cricket used to write his own stuff though, in Ferris. Yes, he's one of the few of that did actually write his own material.

Lee : So are you writing anything at the minute?

Michael : Not really. I kind of do sort of bits of pieces for Tick Tock and Instagram, that kind of thing just to keep me.

Do you think aliens are among us? I don't really

Lee : You've seen the thing about aliens. I've seen you obsessed with the fact that everything is. We've been invaded. Basically, yes. Yeah.

Michael : Some people are definitely aliens.

Lee : Some people definitely are aliens.

Michael : Yeah. Yeah.

Lee : On a serious note, do you think aliens are among us?

Michael : I don't really. I. Probably not. I don't know. M. We're all probably aliens. Yeah. I think.

Lee : I don't know. It's just,

Michael : I. I don't think that's kind of. I'd be very surprised if sort of beings from another planet have landed here and stayed and. Sure, they'd go back. Yeah.

Lee : How bad.

Michael : Why would they want to.

Lee : How bad is the alien planet if they've.

Michael : Yeah, exactly.

Lee : Come to Mary H. And gone. Well, this is nice.

Michael : Yes.

Lee : I'd like to stay.

Michael : I'd be very surprised. I wouldn't be surprised if there are.

Lee : I think there are. There are aliens.

Michael : There are other plans of people.

Lee : Yeah, Yeah.

Michael : I mean, I don't believe in this sort of, you know, Jesus thing, that God creates the word, that crap. So I'll be. You know, I'm not very scientifically minded, but I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, billions of miles away, there is another galaxy with people in it. Must be, or beings, whatever you want to call them.

Lee : Well, who knows?

Michael : But I also have this lovely concept that if, you know, the sort of. The space exploration that they want to find a planet with other beings and they think there's some. I think they found some planet in other galaxies which. Which is conducive to, beings. But I just sort of. If used to come, they do, you know, find a guest spacecraft and they travel, you know, years to reach this planet, expecting something amazing, and they just land in a pallet full of gump shots, basically.

Lee : Well, I. I'd be interested to know, going back to kids. I've got two kids, all right. Six and nine.

Michael : Good.

Lee : Same genes, same, you know, natural nurture. yeah. completely different.

Michael : Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lee : So I would be interested that if there was this other planet, how. How have they gone from cavemen or, you know, primitive man or what? I don't know whether they're called man or. You could be right. But. But making fire.

Michael : Yeah. Right.

Lee : How was that trajectory? Can't even say the word.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : What does their civilization look like, I wonder?

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : Is it just as bad as ours? You know, have they. Have they gone capitalist? Bonkers?

Michael : But there's a kind of assumption that if there is aliens and other planets, that they're far more advanced than we are. Yeah. No reason to think that it could

Lee : be even more gobshites.

Michael : Could be total idiots.

Lee : Yeah.

Michael : We're killing each other with spirits, for all we know. Yeah.

Lee : And the other thing is, like, have they advanced? So are they still, like in the 1700s?

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : Or are they. You know, I don't know how we've got onto this subject.

Um, because you were doing aliens. Blame me for that. Okay. So that's basically what I'm doing at the moment

because you were doing aliens. Okay. I'm gonna blame you for that one.

Michael : Blame me for that.

Lee : yeah.

Michael : So that's basically what I'm doing at the moment.

Lee : It's just. You're doing tick tock just to keep. Yeah. Keeps me amused as well. So thank you.

Michael : I hope it's keeping something.

Lee : Thank you for that.

What does contentment look like at the ripe old age of 75

so now the ripe old age of 75. 75.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : What does contentment. Let's try and bring it back to mental health a little bit.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : What does contentment look like now for you, after all these years on this planet full of gobshites?

Michael : I probably have relaxed a little bit. More sort of at ease of myself than I used to be. Not totally, though. I'm not kind of. You don't sort of, Maybe some people do, but, I mean, this concept, just retiring and just having a happy, easy life.

Lee : Yeah. Playing golf.

Michael : No, I don't play golf because I've got a dodgy knee, so I can't play golf. But, Yeah, I'd need something to kind of get up in the morning for. I couldn't just be content sitting on a sofa reading and going down to get the local newspaper. But, yeah, I've certainly, Definitely eased a bit over the years. Yeah. But I've never, Never been the type of just sit on the sofa and be content. I'd have to have something to do.

Lee : Walk by the canal.

Michael : Even. Even walking by the car is still nice. But it couldn't be kind of like, you know, this is part of my daily life. I'll, get up and have a nice breakfast, then walk by the canal and then make, lunch. I'd have to have something to get my teeth into. Couldn't. Just couldn't relax. Totally. M. Although I'm not frantic by any means.

Lee : No, I think that's where I struggle. So I have the. I. I go and see a psychologist every couple of weeks, Dr. Jan and I. Because I find it difficult to switch off.

Michael : Dr. Jan sounds a bit sinister.

Lee : Dr. Jan have a meta. She's very sinister. She's not. She's lovely. And yeah, we'll just. And my wife will say, we'll just Go. Just go for a walk.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : I'm like, but why?

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : What's the purpose? Unless I've got. Unless there's an aim or a goal.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : Or I'm achieving something.

Michael : Yeah. It's a nice sunny day. I like walking by the canal. I do enjoy it, but it couldn't

Lee : be my, you know, get up at 8:00'. Clock.

Michael : Yeah. Yeah. Not that type. Yeah. That wouldn't be it. If. If it's a sunny day, I think, oh, I might go for a walk. That'd be nice. Because I feel like.

Michael says he doesn't have any specific thing he does to relax

Lee : So what do you do to relax them, Michael?

Michael : It's a very good question. I don't. I don't have any specific thing I do to relax. I mean, I've. I like cooking. I'm not a gourmet chef. Okay. So most days I would sort of, go shopping most days for food. Because I'll decide what day I'm gonna. I'm gonna eat for that day. That kind of thing. Apart, from another country.

Lee : Tick tock about aliens.

Michael : TikTok. Yeah. Ah, go for a cycle, maybe. That's only if it's sunny. I don't sort of.

Lee : It's always sunny.

Michael : Yeah.

Lee : Look at it.

Michael : So I'm not going to just go for a cycle, just as you said. It's not a daily routine thing. M. So it's a difficult question. I watch television, obviously. Yeah.

Lee : What are you watching at the moment? What would you. Anything you'd recommend?

Michael : I'm watching Dexter at the moment. Have you seen that?

Lee : No, I've never watched Dexter.

Michael : Should watch it. It's very good.

Lee : Okay.

Michael : Son recommended to me, which is a bit worrying because he's a serial killer.

Lee : What? Your son's a serial killer? Okay.

Michael : As far as I know, my son isn't.

Lee : No. Well, I was. I. I met my wife travelling, which is why I'm now in Scotland.

Dexter says he was voted most likely to be a serial killer

Michael : All right. Okay.

Lee : And whilst I was backpacking before I met her on, a coach tour, I was voted the person in our group most likely to be a serial killer.

Michael : Really?

Lee : Yeah.

Michael : Just. Just from your appearance or some of the things you said.

Lee : Oh, no, I. I think it was the things I didn't say.

Michael : Oh, really?

Lee : I think I was quite quiet.

Michael : All right. Okay.

Lee : I listened quite a lot.