Rebekah Commane meets Gary Carroll who has played his part in putting the county Clare town on the map
Hilarious videos capture worldwide audience
IF you find yourself suffering from the blues in the inclement weather, and are twiddling your thumbs looking for some entertainment, then get on YouTube and tune in to the videos by ‘Dryadssaddle’ and you’re woes will soon be replaced with roars of laughter.
The man behind the hilarious videos has so far remained anonymous, using the name of a non-poisonous mushroom as his ID on YouTube, but he has now come forward to provide an exclusive interview to the Limerick Post on where his ideas originate and plans for the future.
North Circular Road resident Gary Carroll, 25, created his first video out of boredom and to “get a rise” out of his friends. He has since gone on to create numerous mock-ups of famous music videos and has written original lyrics and clips, which he posted on YouTube.
Many of the clips have received tens of thousands of hits and have been central to conversations in many pubs across Limerick and his native Shannon.
“The first clip I made was of rock band Metallica because I have a lot of friends who are hardcore fans, so I wanted to make fun of them and be controversial.
“I have a Mac so with it I deleted the original soundfile on the video and played the guitar really badly out of tune along with it, so it looked like the band are terrible when performing live. I then did the same to videos of La Roux, Daniel O’Donnell and Coldplay, which has nearly 100,000 hits at the moment”.
Modest Gary says that most people come across his videos when they are searching for a bands name on YouTube, and then find his clips.
However, with comments such as: “Brilliant!! Dude your a legend” and “this is the most genius thing ever, A work of sheer brilliance” attached to the videos, its clear that he is gaining fame in his own right.
One video that has sent viewers into conniptions of laughter is of the XFactor’s Daniel Johnson, in which the singer appears to be singing about sausages.
“When I made that video I was thinking people will say I’m mad, but I have a friend, Paddy O’Donnell, who is always honest with me and told me to put it up and it got a great reaction. It’s gas, sometimes I’ll be out socialising and someone will start talking about how hilarious the video is and they don’t know I made it”.
Gary and his friend Ryan McGrath, from Cappamore, also made a video about growing up in Shannon, which became a phenomenon in the town and was posted on the Facebook pages of many residents.
“I was asked to do a video on Shannon for the reopening of the Knights. I made one about growing up there and was told at first that it might cause offence, but then the organisers changed their minds and figured that it would get a laugh”.
When asked where the name Dryadsaddle came from, Gary admits that it was from a nature book he had bought.
“I was working in Tyco in Shannon and a company would come in selling books, so I bought one by Derek Mooney. There was a mushroom in it called a Dryad’s Saddle and there was something about the name I liked. I don’t now if its a magic mushroom or not!”.
Gary is also a serious musician, and taught himself to play the guitar as a youngster who “didn’t go out and was kind of shy”.
He has played in Bakers in Limerick many times but finds playing live difficult. “I feel uncomfortable and get really nervous when playing live to an audience”, he admits, though he writes his own songs which he often uses a synthesizer, base and drums to create.
Gary plans to continue his music videos and is returning to college at UL this year to study Music and Video Production. The general consensus among those who have seen his videos is that he is one to watch for the future.
Check it out below….
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