Patrick Monahan

Patrick Monahan: The Edinburgh Interviews 2019

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© Steve Ullathorne
Who? Patrick Monahan
What? Started From The Bottom, Now I’m Here
Where? Gilded Balloon Teviot – Nightclub (Venue 14)
When? 20:00

What are your feelings as you enter into this year’s Edinburgh Fringe season?

Excitement, hunger, sleeplessness, and tiredness. But this is all because we’re moving house just before the 2019 festival. Which is probably one of the maddest things you can do at this time of year. Normally a couple of months before Edinburgh Festival I’d be travelling around doing previews, and getting myself rested up ready for a month long marathon in Scotland. Instead i’m moving around boxes of notes and comedy ideas for my new show from one house to another. It’s actually a great way to distract yourself from worrying too much too.

What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?

It’s a very personal show this year. Each year I always try to reveal a bit more of my upbringing and life, flashing back to my immigrant roots and comparing it to today’s world. This show looks at how we not only were immigrants, as outsiders, we were also poor immigrants coming from the Middle East as kids, growing up in a small working class town in the north of England, living in a caravan for most of my teenage years. I could probably make about 10 separate one hour Edinburgh shows out of just this part of my life. 

What is the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?

When you start to open up and reveal more of yourself to the audience you have got to be careful that you don’t scare or alienate them. But I think we’re so lucky in the UK that we have the best comedy savvy audience that they love to hear about every aspect of life. Also, it’s important when you’re doing a show like this at the festival that you get the balance right between observational comedy and personal routines. 

Has your attitude towards the Fringe changed at all in recent years?

No, the Fringe does a great job, in that it allows performers to bring a new show and let it live and breath and take shape amongst one of the greatest audiences in the western hemisphere.

Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?

See as many shows as you can. Theres no point spending hours on a train, and £100’s on hotels and food and only see one show. But don’t try and see more than 5 shows a day or you’ll be heading to the festival on a train and leaving in an ambulance.

Where would you like to be in a year’s time?

I’d love to be settled in my new house, with all my new notes of my new show neatly organised in folders in my filing cabinet instead of in crates and shoe boxes in the back of a truck or warehouse, which is where they are today.

GET YOUR TICKETS FOR PATRICK MONAHAN: ‘STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM, NOW I’M HERE’ HERE

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2019

Lily Lovett and Patrick Monahan: The Edinburgh Interviews 2018

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© Steve Ullathorne

Who? Lily Lovett and Patrick Monahan
What? Date Night
Where? Just the Tonic at The Caves (venue 88)
When? 21:25

Are you prepared for what this year’s Edinburgh Fringe has in store for you?

Yes. We’ve been previewing our dating show all over the country so I feel ready to matchmake all the singles in the city this month! It’s such a fun show to perform so I’m just excited to have fun with our audiences.

What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?

We are hosting a dating show that is both for singles and couples. It’s Love Island meets Blind Date, a bit old and a bit new. We have a special guest each night, a single fellow Fringe performer, and we play games to eventually match them with their most suited member of the audience. We test couples on how well they know each other and there’s lots of comedy and sketches. 

What was the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?

Working with my partner (comedian Patrick Monahan)… No it’s great working together but because we’re a couple we don’t have the sort of politeness two colleagues would have with each other. We’re very much ‘that’s an awful suggestion Pat’ and ‘Lily that’s a terrible idea’. Being so honest and unafraid to be blunt with each other probably saved us a lot more time compared to less intimate double acts!

Who would most enjoy your show?

Anyone! Lots of performers say that but really, our show is clean and fun for everyone, families can come, older couples can come, young single people can come, it really is one for everyone.

Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?

Obviously I’m going to say my partner Patrick Monahan’s solo show at the Gilded Balloon, 8pm. It’s basically an hour of him taking the piss out of me, which I don’t mind because my dad is a comedian (Red Dwarf’s Norman Lovett) and since I was old enough to talk I was watching him make jokes about me on stage. Pat’s show this year is brilliant, it’s my favourite of his yet. It’s very relatable, all about relationships and living together, in the previews I’ve seen a lot of the audience nodding throughout! He talks about how we’re from such different backgrounds (immigrant working class versus British middle class) and there’s a particularly great routine based on me making avocado on toast. It’s very funny! 

What is your favourite thing about Edinburgh as a city?

It’s so beautiful. And I have a strong connection with Edinburgh. My parents met here at the festival, my dad was performing at Gilded Balloon so it’s funny that my partner also does. I spent my very early years in Stockbridge and after moving to London we still came up to the festival for my dad’s shows. Now I perform here in festival time and we often come for Christmases so it feels a bit like a second home. 

What are your plans for after the festival?

We are off to Ibiza for a well earned holiday straight after our last show so Edinburgh can rain as much as it wants this August, in September I will make up for it and finally get a summer tan! Then we’re going to set up a regular night in London for our dating show and do some shows in other cities too.

GET YOUR TICKETS FOR ‘DATE NIGHT’ HERE

PATRICK MONAHAN: ‘#GOALS’

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2018

Patrick Monahan: The Edinburgh Interviews 2018

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© Steve Ullathorne

Who? Patrick Monahan
What? #Goals
Where? Gilded Balloon Teviot (venue 14)
When? 20:00

Are you prepared for what this year’s Edinburgh Fringe has in store for you?

You can never be prepared for Edinburgh, no mater how much you preview & train for the festival, the month long run is like an assault course that even the best SAS soldiers would struggle with. 

What is the premise of your Edinburgh show this year?

It’s a brand new stand up show with a slight theme looking at me being ‘immigrant working class’ and my misses being ‘British middle class’ and about how easy/difficult it is living together from our two backgrounds.

What was the biggest obstacle you face(d) while putting this show together?

Cutting the show down to 60 minutes. Because when I started writing it at the start of the year, I write out 90 minutes of material on it because I tour the show straight after Edinburgh! 

Who would most enjoy your show?

Everyone! Because my shows are non-threatening, cleanish material and uplifting, I try not to exclude anyone, except for racists and serial killers!

Do you have any other Edinburgh show recommendations?

Yes, “Date Night” at 9.25pm every night at Just The Tonic, it’s a brilliant brand new dating show, which is hosted by my misses & me! 

What is your favourite thing about Edinburgh as a city?

Everything, the people, the surrounding scenery, the old style buildings, the cheap Lidl on Nichols street, the free samples of fudge in the fudge shop, the quiet walk home through the meadows at the end of each night, the value for money food in the mosque kitchen… the list is endless, what’s not to love about this city!

What are your plans for after the festival?

Sleep, Tour, sleep, tour, write, rest, tour, eat loads of food!

GET YOUR TICKETS FOR PATRICK MONAHAN: ‘#GOALS’ HERE

LILY LOVETT AND PATRICK MONAHAN: DATE NIGHT

THE EDINBURGH INTERVIEWS 2018

Seven Questions With… Patrick Monahan

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patrickmonahanPatrick Monahan is one of the most energetic performers to ever come out of Ireland or Iran or even Newcastle. With an uncanny ability to get audiences animated through singing, dancing and laughter it is perhaps unsurprising that Monahan’s demographic spans a large age range. His material is largely autobiographical: it’s honest, uplifting and immensely enjoyable to witness live. And the opportunity to witness the force that is Patrick Monahan live may come sooner than you think, as he is rumoured to be announcing a tour in the very near future.
To learn more about his comedy, I asked Patrick these seven questions…

1) Do you consider yourself to be proactive?

I think to survive as a stand up you have no choice but to be proactive, your material is constantly up on every social media on line, clips are put up on YouTube filmed by audience at gigs or by the police on CCTV and uploaded. So you have to keep writing and developing new comedy routines and gags and stories, cos if people discover you on line, and come to see you, it’s nice for them to see you doing something different. It’s not like being a singer that can do their greatest hits on line and on stage, I’d love to be Justin Bieber or Adele, but unfortunately stand ups can’t be.

2) Where does your love of dance come from?

I’ve always loved physical comedy from growing up watching comics like Robin Williams & Richard Pryor, who not only tell the story but re-enact every detail of the story. And I love comedy about real life things that have happened at clubs or music venues that instead of just telling it, I can express it through dance to the audience. I enjoy dancing but I don’t know how many people like watching me dance.

3) Do you love or loathe the concept of New Year?

I think the whole idea of having a new year its great fun, but in reality it doesn’t actually change that much from doing comedy a week before or a week after. Although people actually out on New Year’s Eve at a comedy show are a lot better behaved than people out in December cos most people out on NYE are mostly couples or family celebrating who want to listen to the show as opposed to office parties who want to sleep with Denise in accounts & roast Dave from finance who are out on a Xmas works do.

4) What would you define ‘lazy comedy’ as?

Anyone who nicks routines of another comic is obviously lazy and should be punished by being sent to a remote island with a laptop and not allowed off till they can write a one and half hour show of their own stand up. I have to write a new tour show every year and I didn’t even know my alphabet till I was 14. If I can write regularly then no excuses for anyone else.

5) Which subject bored you the most at school?

School was interesting for me cos I went to a couple of different schools, so before I could get too bored me family had moved to somewhere else. But I definitely think if I went back to school now, I’d get more out of it than when I was a kid. Also most schools give away a free tablet to write on.

6) Do you enjoy being busy?

I love it. I get 2 days off a year, which is Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, but to be honest, by the evening of Xmas I’m scratching around at home looking for an impromptu gig I can sneak onto!

7) Does the audience your comedy attracts ever surprise you?

My comedy audience range from 8 years old to 88 years old, mainly cos me comedy is non-offensive, without any swearing or anything too blue. So my audience will consist of couples & families who bring out their kids & grandparents. I love it, I’d never complain.

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH PATRICK MONAHAN’S COMEDY WORK BY VISITING HIS WEBSITE AND FOLLOWING HIM ON TWITTER.

SEVEN QUESTIONS WITH…

Edinburgh Preview: Patrick Monahan – The Disco Years

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patrickmonaghanPatrick Monahan has an energy that could wake the dead. In a last minute preview before the Edinburgh Festival (which was, at the time, imminent), the Irish-Iranian-Geordie comic was adding the final flourishes to his latest stand up hour, working on cementing the overall structure of the show, yet he bounded on stage with the confidence of a man that new the next sixty minutes were to go swimmingly, regardless of how far progressed his material was in that moment.

A show that begins with several minutes of vigorous seventies style dancing from the older members of our Birmingham audience is not the way I expected Patrick to get the ball rolling, but comedy is all about new experiences, and we were clearly there to learn. The hour (and the rest) itself is a personal and honest account of the comedian’s experiences as a young boy growing up in Iran in the 1970s, with heavy influences from the world of dance, of course, as this appears to be Patrick’s speciality.

I was born in the late 1990s and it’s fair to say that I know very little of what went on in the 70s (or even the 80s and 90s for that matter) other than the obvious pop culture stereotypes and a brief understanding of international tensions at the time. Diverse, to say the least. But not only were us younger audience members (or “the children” as we were referred to) able to learn a little more about what living in the 1970s was like for many, we were also invited to be a part of the discussion, which resulted in many laughs and a unified feel in the room. Forgetting, possibly, that the house lights were up for the entirety of the show, Monahan nurtured and maintained a friendly, sociable atmosphere. Even if that meant unknowingly encroaching on regional banter with innocent questions like “which is nicer, Worcester or Wolverhampton?”.

Patrick Monahan is a truly charming comic who exhibits great care for his audiences as well as for the quality of his craft, making his show one of the most enjoyable and uplifting experiences to be had at the Fringe.

Patrick Monahan is currently performing his show The Disco Years at the Edinburgh Festival.

SEVEN QUESTIONS WITH… PATRICK MONAHAN

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A Guide To Edinburgh 2015

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That time of year is upon us once more; thousands of performers, reviewers and audience members are preparing to visit the holy grail of comedy that is the Edinburgh Festival. Here is a quick run through of everything MoodyComedy would be attending if only I could get there this year. Do get in touch if you attend any of these shows, or see something else that you think should be featured. You can also catch up with the past week’s exclusive MoodyComedy interviews.

Stuff That’s Gold

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Katherine Ryan

Katherine Ryan is performing her latest show, Kathbum, currently riding high on her phenomenal rise to fame in recent years and showing no signs of stopping any time soon. With every new show, Katherine only increases in her wisdom, experience and cutting sass, similar to that of Irish charmer Aisling Bea who brings her second show, Plan Bea, to the festival. Another name to watch out for is that of Luisa Omielan, who will perform a very limited run of her second show Am I Right Ladies?!. Omielan is a performer that cares about her audience to an extent I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed before: her show is empowering, lively and not to be missed.

James Acaster presents another whacky hour of surreal yet surprisingly dramatic story-telling stand up in his show Represent and Joe Lycett returns, with possibly the best show title of the year: That’s The Way, A-Ha A-Ha, Joe Lycett. And it would frankly be a mistake to miss out on seeing Bridget Christie‘s latest show, A Book For Her, which sees the launch of her debut novel, and showcases her trademark blend of feminism and spectacular comedy.

Stuff That’s Odd

Tony Law, the king of surreal comedy, is performing his new show Frillemorphesis where he explores ideas such as shouting, moving and talking, absolutely standard. A live show from the Tone Zone is an opportunity not to be missed, or forgotten in a hurry, and his being in this category is by no means a suggestion that this show will not also be Gold.

Shouty extraordinaire Bobby Mair brings another dark and bitterly funny show off the back of his recent television successes, entitled Filthy Immigrant; Tom Allen performs Both Worlds with his signature sinister calm and endearing flamboyance and Harriet Kemsley, who spent the first part of this year supporting Katherine Ryan on tour, also performs her debut hour, Puppy Fat, which has got the critics excited. If you like a bit of audience interaction, Jonny Awsum’s show Everything Is Awsum will be another unforgettable experience, as will Patrick Monahan’s seventies-inspired show The Disco Years.

Stuff That’s Free

Now any Edinburgh Festival-goer will be able to tell you that ticket price does not necessarily dictate quality; free shows are on the rise as they are a great way of ensuring the trip is more affordable for comedians and fans alike. There are some real gems performing shows this year that rely on kind donations alone.

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Lou Sanders

Rob Auton has prepared another delightfully off-kilter, poetical concept show entitled The Water Show where he considers everything surrounding the theme of water, much like his previous shows which have centred around themes such as Yellow, Sky and Face. Elf Lyons‘ Being Barbarella is a high-octane adventure, discussing science fiction, liberation and sharks. This lady is a true one-off, who’s surreal form of comedy is often likened to The Mighty Boosh. And Lou Sanders, being the wonderful shambles of a performer that she is, brings her insane show about her efforts to get accepted into Eton College For Boys, of course entitled: Excuse Me, You’re Sitting On My Penis Again.

Stuart Goldsmith will also be recording episodes of The Comedian’s Comedian Podcast where he interviews everyone that is anyone in the world of comedy, delving deep into the psyche of the performer and having many laughs in the process. The line up for this year is stellar and although the recordings are free to attend and non-ticketed, the venue will undoubtedly fill up quickly on the night so plan ahead.

You can purchase tickets for all shows mentioned on the Edinburgh Festival website.

READ EDINBURGH PREVIEWS HERE