Fright Night No More: Interview With PJ Gallagher
Claire Fox speaks with comedian PJ Gallagher about his upcoming Concussion tour, overcoming his nerves and his new found love affair with radio.Best known for his roles as the bizarre Jake Stevens and the lewd Dirty Aul Wan in Naked Camera, PJ Gallagher has come a long way from working in a warehouse with fellow comic Jason Byrne.Back then, Gallagher barely even know what a comedian was, crediting Byrne for his entrance into the wacky world of comedy. “Yeah, I used to work in a warehouse with Jason and he always wanted to be a stand-up but, to be honest with you, I didn’t even know what stand-up was,” opens Gallagher in his unmistakeable Dublin accent.“I’d heard of Brendan Grace and all them, and I thought it was funny that he wanted to wear a suit and tell jokes, but I didn’t really understand it. And then he [Byrne] used to get me to do gigs because he didn’t want to do them on his own and that’s how I started. After a while Jason’s career took off and I was left on me own, thinking ‘yeah I better write my own jokes.’”After years of slogging it out on the strenuous stand-up circuit across Ireland, Gallagher finally got his lucky break upon a chance encounter with director Liam McGrath who pitched the idea of a hidden camera show to him.“It was an accident really,” he says of the hit-programme’s genesis. “Liam McGrath, who was the director, was used to doing these Prime Time under-cover documentaries on criminals and one night a guy put a knife to him. He said that he had a wife and family and couldn’t do it anymore. So he decided to do comedy.“He asked a whole load of comedians and nobody wanted to do it; they all thought it wouldn’t be any good. I was the last person he asked, the last person to say ok and the rest is history. The very first audition I did is the very first clip shown on Naked Camera. So it was the right time, right place really.”
“He asked a whole load of comedians and nobody wanted to do it; they all thought it wouldn’t be any good."
The show which also starred Cobh comedienne Maeve Higgins and Father Ted alumnus Patrick McDonnell was on many occasions compared to The Live Mike, a show fronted by Mike Murphy in the eighties. Both shows had a similar format: pranking and pestering people as they went about their daily lives. The format was obviously a winning one as Naked Camera became the most successful programme in the history of RTÉ 2, something which came as a wonderful surprise to Gallagher and the gang. 
“When we were making it all we wanted was to make something that wasn’t rubbish. Let’s make something that’s not rubbish and that you can actually get away with. When it turned out to be the most watched show on RTÉ 2’s history we were like ‘What?!’“It blew our minds,” adds Gallagher after a brief pause as if to momentarily reflect on the show’s fortunes. Like all good things, though, they must come to an end, with Gallagher stating that the only drawback of a hidden camera show is indeed a damning and fatal one.“When you make a show like that you’re your own worst enemy because the day somebody knows your face is the day it’s over,” admits Gallagher. “It was hard to break it up, but it had to come to a natural end.”
"Let’s make something that’s not rubbish and that you can actually get away with."
Having moved on from his memorable Naked Camera days, Gallagher is currently taking his unique comedic style around Ireland in his new tour, Concussion. The material is based on everyday experiences from his own life and sees him take to the intimate Everyman Stage this Valentine’s night.“I haven’t been doing stand up for the last two years, so a lot of it is just stories and what’s going on. I’m lucky enough that I get myself into all sort of stupid scrapes and I can make a story out of it.“I’ve got Joanne McNally touring with me, who is actually so good that I’m afraid to get up on the stage after her, and Derek Lawlor, who is just one of the most solid comics ever. I didn’t want to do it on my own anymore, so there’s a little bit more going on than there was before.”For Gallagher comedy is about “opening your eyes and paying as much attention as you can.” This is the oath he swears by when stitching together his stand-up material.“It is daily experiences for me, stuff just has to happen, you have to go out and just listen and talk to people and if anything annoys you just write it down and the next day it might gradually feel funny to you.”Like many of Ireland’s top comedians, Gallagher remembers a time, not too far back, when the Irish comedy scene was a fairly compact one. But with the explosion of clubs and social media sites dedicated to making people laugh, the circuit has drastically changed; perhaps not for the better though.“It’s going backwards a little,” comments the funnyman. “It’s getting more conservative again and people seem to want clean jokes, whereas beforehand we literally just got up and said whatever the hell we wanted and whoever wanted to listen to it listened to it.“It’s not a bad thing; it makes it more mainstream. The amount of people trying to get into comedy is enormous nowadays. When we were getting into it there was 12 full-time comedians working in Ireland and now I would say there’s probably 1,000.”One thing that Gallagher has always had to battle against, at least until recently, is the frantic bouts of stage fright he used to suffer from in the days leading up to a gig. While in conversation with the Dubliner, Gallagher talks about the experience in jest, although it’s clear that it was a cycle that drained him both mentally and physically.
"When we were getting into it there was 12 full-time comedians working in Ireland and now I would say there’s probably 1,000.”
“It never affected the performance, that’s the annoying thing about it. It just ruined the whole day before. I wouldn’t be able to eat. I’d be shaking. I couldn’t hold proper conversations. I’d get nothing done on those days and it was just real over-powering dread.“It was just so stupid and irrational and then you’d get onstage and it’s fine; literally the minute you touch the microphone it’s gone. It was just a bad habit that I got into and that I needed to break.”The shattering of this vicious cycle of nerves and nausea was no easy feat for Gallagher but he eventually turned a corner upon filming a show for RTÉ’s Reality Bites series, in which he documents the daily struggles of people living with anxiety and learns methods to overcome his own fears.While at first Gallagher admits he was apprehensive about filming the show, it was a huge eye-opener for him.“It really made a huge difference. When I started the show, I was worried that the cameras would freak me out but it has ended up being one of the best things I’ve done because I don’t get stage fright any more. I get nervous but I don’t get ridiculously over-powering fears like I used to get. This year I know, without a shadow of a doubt, it’s just going to be one of the most enjoyable tours I’ve done.”By reacting better to situations instead of constantly fearing the worst, Gallagher urges those suffering from stage fright, panic attacks or any type of anxiety to speak out.“It’s all habit. Like when you think about phobias, they’re just habits. You just have to train yourself to react better and break the cycle, and one day I just realised that all the fear was just not worth it. You just have to move onto your next gig; what’s the worst that can happen? You should talk about it because when you don’t talk about it, you let it fester.”To those in his own industry plagued with phobia-like dread, Gallagher advises them to “do smaller gigs and just think about it and picture yourself on stage and, honestly, it’s not that hard a cycle to break. It just feels like it’s impossible to break, but it isn’t.”As for the worst that could happen? Well, Gallagher isn’t too worried: “that is maybe at a corporate gig and sure then if you’ve ruined the dinner of 200 accountants, where’s the harm?!”Learning how to cope with his irrational fears and fits of anxiety has surely been the mainspring behind the success of his early morning breakfast show, which he co-hosts with Damien Farrelly. While conversing with Gallagher about his recent entry into the world of the wireless, it’s clear to see that he’s found himself a treasured passion.“It’s different but it’s better than stand-up. To be honest, it’s the most enjoyable thing I’ve ever done. I love it, like, it’s the dream job. I hope I can stay there forever,” laughs Gallagher.“The two of us have a great laugh in the morning. We’re up before the weather, we’re finished work when most people are only going to lunch; I really enjoy it. Who knew after years of doing night shifts that I’m actually a morning person?”Having been charmed by Gallagher’s giggle-inducing personality and positive attitude, the advice he gives at the end of our conversation to those looking to break into the busy entertainment industry is straight-forward, much like the man himself: “Book as many gigs as you can, try everything that comes into your head and don’t start bitching about anybody!” A truer word was never said!Gallagher takes his Concussion tour to Cork’s Everyman Theatre on February 14th, while PJ and Damian in the Morning airs on Classic Hits 4FM weekdays from 6 to 10am.