Offaly funnyman Neil Delamere is coming to Limerick with his brand new tour. Neil kicks off his cheekily titled ‘The Fresh Prince of Delamere’ tour this month and continues around the country in 2015 from January to April.
Neil will bring his show to University Concert Hall this Saturday January 24
by Eric FitzGerald
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Talking to Limerick Post this week, Neil explained, “The show is called The Fresh Prince of Delamere. It’s just a silly stupid pun on my name. I’ve been doing the show in third level institutions and it’s great fun to see them stare at you and not have any clue what the reference is, they are too young to understand.”
Delamere assured us that he will not be dressing up as Will Smith or Carlton from the classic ’90s series. The show is a reflection about what’s been happening in Delamere’s world in the last year.
The biggest thing to happen to the Offaly funnyman in 2014 was getting married to his longterm girlfriend whom he met originally at The Kilkenny Cat Laughs festival. While the wedding was a brilliant success, Delamere tells us that some of his ideas for their honeymoon did not work out as well as planned.
“Yeah, I got married, then I convinced my Missus to go trekking on honeymoon! After nine hours up the mountains, we ended up in a place with 50 per cent less oxygen than you actually need to survive. It is an amazing feeling when you are sitting there surrounded by amazing scenery and all you can see is pure venom in her eyes – telling me, “it’s your stupid idea to do this” – knowing she would prefer to be on a beach in five star luxury somewhere.”
For the new show there will the usual audience interaction before he delves into his new tales of mischief and mayhem which cast an acerbic eye over some of his recent adventures. Expect of course, free tips including honeymoon etiquette, appropriate machine gun usage and how to get €400 cash out of a petrol station owner.”
A star of TV as well as stage, Neil can be seen currently on TV screens in the tenth season of panel show ‘The Blame Game’ on BBC and in the four-part comedy documentary series ‘Holding Out for A Hero’ which aired throughout December on RTE2.
‘Holding Out for A Hero’, which is written and presented by Neil, offers a wry and humorous look at the lives of four Irish heroes from history: Grace O’Malley/ Granuaile, Red Hugh O’Donnell, Cú Chulainn and Fionn Mac Cumhaill.
The series has been well received and Neil tells us that thanks to the great producers and researchers that made the history show so good, he will be looking into doing something similar in 2015. Unlike his stand-up and panel shows the history series is a multi-faceted production.
“Four hours of this type of television is quite heavy in terms of the level of commitment to it, unlike a panel show where you have already done the research and can film it as live. For the series there were interviews over layered with stand-up comedy and then sketches. It was a lot of fun to do.”
‘Holding Out for A Hero’ took an unbiased look at these Celtic ‘heroes’ and examined their extraordinary feats and tried to put it in some degree of context.
Delamere says, “We call Granuaile a nationalist and a patriot but in reality she was concerned with her own area and her own family.”
Neil Delamere’s Fresh Prince of Delamere plays at University Concert Hall on Saturday January 24.
