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The week’s best interviews
INTERVIEW: Deborah McGee
PHOTOS: Naomi Gaffey
THE PLACE: The Morrison Hotel
I
’m sitting in the ritzy lobby
of the Morrison Hotel, in
close proximity to the main
entrance, waiting for a
bearded Kevin McGahern
to breeze in, full of The Republic
Of Telly joys. In his role as the
comedy show’s main anchor,
Kevin is a high energy personality
known for his razor sharp wit and
wacky sense of humour. After
some time passes however, I’m
still waiting for Kevin and the
confused hotel staff begin to
circle and approach one by one
asking if I’d like to order anything:
“I’m just waiting on someone...” is
my continuous response keeping
one eye firmly on the door and the
other glued to my phone in case
Kevin is trying to call.
The hotel bar is also in my eye-
line and a forlorn figure at the bar
dressed in a Batman jumper – his
head buried into an empty glass
– catches my attention. It’s Kevin.
All this time the comedic crusader
has been sitting literally metres
away, nursing a hot whiskey to
fight the effects of the dreaded
flu. I apologise for not recognising
him and blame his lack of facial
hair, which he explains he shaved
for a Republic Of Telly bare faced
liar sketch. “It’s weird I can feel
the wind on my face,” he smiles. “I
kinda like it bare now. It feels like
a woman’s face.”
The interview begins...
I bring Kevin to a private room to
conduct the interview where we
wax lyrical about The Republic
Of Telly’s new season, his life as
a stand up, and his burgeoning
movie career! But first, let’s
discuss Jennifer Maguire, who
will be notably absent from
this season of the show as
she embarks on a far more
challenging chapter in her life as a
new mum.
“Jenny’s up the duff – we’ve
no idea how it happened,” Kevin
jests. “We’re all excited to know
who the father is – her probably
more than anybody. The day
that DNA test goes out that’s
going to be an exciting day in the
Maguire household.” Is Kevin the
father? “No definitely not,” he says
straight faced. “There are a few
candidates but you need to do
to earth, y’know, and I think that
comes across. There’s too many
arse****s in the business. It’s
nice to get sound people y’know.
That’s going to be the little quote
that you pick: the place is full of
arse****s.”
How he landed the job?
Kevin’s foray onto RTÉ is a direct
consequence of his participation
in the RTÉ Two Comedy Awards,
hosted by Jennifer Maguire and
Bernard O’Shea. Of course ask a
comedian a serious question, and
the answer to expect is a comical
one. “I won a competition on the
testing these days to really be
sure.” If the baby is a redhead,
Kevin jokes that Bernard O’Shea
is already preparing to leave the
country.
Replacing Jennifer will be
a catalogue of Irish female
hotties from Georgia Salpa
to Nadia Ford. “All the lads
will be pleased to know that
Georgia Salpa is there, Angela
Scanlon will feature and Panti
too,” he offers. Of course,
none really can replace the
inimitable Maguire. “Jen is very
nice, very genuine,” Kevin says
commending his co-presenter.
“She’s a Dublin girl, she’s down
The Republic Of Telly star bravely
battles through a dose of man flu
and fills us in on his big news
Comedy
Republic Of Telly
Monday, March 23rd, 10pm,
RTE Two
Kevin McGahern
back of the RTÉ Guide,” he quips,
when I ask how he landed the
top TV job. “It was in 12 words or
less: write why you should host
The Republic Of Telly.”
It happens that Republic of
Telly producer Shane Mulvey
pretty much plucked Kevin from
obscurity believing McGahern
could handle the hotseat. “He
saw something in me I suppose,
so he gave me my break. There
was a good six months where
I was looking over my shoulder
waiting for someone to replace
me,” says Kevin, fearing the golden
opportunity to be too good to be
true.
Kevin: the movie star
Good fortune is following
McGahern it seems with the
upcoming release of No Party For
Billy Burns by filmmaker Padraig
Conaty. “It’s a feature film that we
made down in Cavan last year,” he
explains of the quirky concept in
which he stars as cowboy fanatic
Billy Burns. “It’s being edited at
the moment and is due out in the
next few months and hopefully
it will tour a few festivals.” Kevin
reveals that he was in fact the
inspiration for the film.
“We were at a fundraiser
for cancer in Cavan and it was
Western-themed so I assumed
everyone would dress up as a
cowboy and when I got there
no one was really dressed up,
apart from the odd eccentric
lad, and I just looked like an
eejit. So he [Padraig] got this
idea about a simple country
lad living with his grandfather
who is obsessed with western
films. We shot it down home,
with a lot of local actors, and
Shane Connaughton [co-writer
of Oscar nominated screenplay
My Left Foot] read the script
and loved it and agreed to play
the role of the Grandfather
– so that was a huge boost.
That should hopefully be
coming out this year.” Kevin
continues about the making of
No Party For Billy Burns: “The
budget was very low – I can’t
remember what the figure was
exactly, but we raised a lot of
money ourselves and used
Fund It and a lot of people
donated towards it at home.
Film is a great way to get a
buzz going in a town. Some of
the local guards were amazing
too and lent us cars so we
were very grateful to them.”
Currently in a “mixed
marriage” with his long-term
girlfriend Siobhan – “she’s
from Longford, but we make it
work” – it’s fair to say Kevin’s
cup is, both professionally and
personally, full. The comedy
writer, stand up, and TV
presenter is also co-host of
this year’s GALAs, Ireland’s
LGBT Awards, with Tara Flynn
whom he created the topical
on-line sketch Armagayddon
with. “Last year there was so
much talk about homophobes,”
TEA WITH...
“That’s going
to be the little
quote you pick:
the place is
full of arse****s”
he comments of the Saturday
Night Show furore, “about
whether you are allowed to
say the word homophobe,
and there was almost like a
sympathy towards these poor
homophobes who couldn’t
express their feelings in a
world full of love. So we
sat down and wrote it, Tara
put it to script and that’s
why we hosted the GALAs,
because of that.”
Kevin is far too modest it
seems, for it’s through his
evident talent to entertain
that he has captured the
appreciation of comedy
lovers across the viewing
nation. Although, it’s fair to
say Kevin is not feeling too
fuelled by humour today. He
has man flu, after all. ■
back of the RTÉ Guide,” he quips, cowboy and when I got there he comments of the Saturday
“WE’RE ALL EXCITED TO KNOW WHO THE FATHER OF
JENNIFER’S BABY IS — HER MORE THAN ANYBODY
”
With his co-presenters
Bernard and Jennifer
HOW DOES HE TAKE HIS
TEA? “Weak and white, just like
me.”
CUPS PER DAY? “I’m not a big
tea man, I’m more of a coffee man,
so probably one.”
WHO WOULD HE MOST
LIKE TO SHARE A CUPPA
WITH? “A cuddle?”
A CUPPA! “Oh! Nicolas Cage
– I think he’s amazing – and
Aidan Gillen. I think Aidan Gillen is
Ireland’s Nicolas Cage. He’s really
weird, he gives really weird odd
performances but they are really
quite good. I think he’s fascinating.
Neither of them are ever boring.”
KEVIN’S
TEA FACTS