No Shortt-age of humour in Tubber

FIREBRAND comedian Alan Shortt will perform at Finnerty’s in Tubber on Friday night. FIREBRAND comedian Alan Shortt will perform at Finnerty’s in Tubber on Friday night.
Alan, who is known from his role on Bull Island and appearances on The Panel and The Late Late Show, said that he is glad to be going off the beaten track.
“I’ve decided to go out to the market, because you get a more organic experience. If you go to people like this it’s a parish event and it’s more craic. I’d rather do three gigs a county and keep busy and build thing sup slowly rather than pretend I’m Billy Connolly. So many other people do the same venues and if you do it, you don’t really stand out.”
Alan is a talented political comedian and when talk turns to Celtic Tiger excess and the Government, he becomes very animated. “I’m as bitter as f**k! I was invited to a Fianna Fáil dinner lately and told it’d be good for networking. Networking! I said if I’d five pints at it I’d hit someone. The black dog in me would wake up.”
He has mimicked Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen and doesn’t have much time for either, particularly Ahern. “The two of them are like Statler and Waldorf in the Muppet Show, looking down at the stage and not really knowing what’s going on. You’d have to love Ahern’s roguery. He was on Ursula Halligan the other night and it was all ‘oh poor me’. He’s like someone who got tips from Princess Di and Bill Clinton on how to do interviews. He has the head to the side and tears in the eyes. I’d say he probably put in eye drops beforehand and kept an onion in his pocket. Bertie just kept fecking away the country’s money to keep everyone at bay.
“Poor oul’ Brian Cowen, he’s never faced the country as Taoiseach so he doesn’t have a mandate. He’s a nice guy, clever and witty but he isn’t cutting the mustard. Now ,he has been unlucky but so what? He’s getting well paid and if you can’t do your job, you get out.”
Begrudgery is still a national pastime he feels, with people taking delight at the misfortune of victims of the economic collapse.
“A huge amount of people have lost everything and they’re still begrudged because they’re being told they shouldn’t have had it in the first place. Why shouldn’t they? Were we all supposed to live like Peig Sayers, sit out on rocking chairs on the Blasket Islands in front of turf fires?”
Keeping people entertained is very important, he says. “With the stuff that is happening, everyone is feeling pain and fear. The challenge is to communicate around that and to try and make people laugh. If you can do that for an hour a week, you’ve done something.”
The show will begin at Finnerty’s on Friday at 8.30pm. Tickets are now available from the pub and can also be purchased on the night, although numbers are limited.