Patrick Kielty says Borderline tour is his most personal show yet: ‘There's laughs and there's truth’

Virgin Radio

8 Apr 2022, 11:55

Comedian Patrick Kielty joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky this morning to talk about the true meaning behind his latest tour.

The Irish funnyman is back on the road in the UK for the first time since his critically acclaimed 2015 live show Help, and he will be returning to his satirical roots with a personal take on borders, Northern Ireland and the future of the Union in a post-Brexit landscape.

Speaking about the title of the show, he explained: “It's called borderline because I grew up in Northern Ireland close to the border.

“I wanted to write something about how the world looks at the minute, and I ended up writing something about who I am, and what my attitude was growing up, and how the place I grew up informed me.”

He added: “We make our opinions very quick. We're very binary, you know it's ‘fake news’, or ‘You're a brexiteer’. In Northern Ireland, we kind of did that. For years, we basically just made our minds up about people before we even looked at them. I mean, when we were growing up, we had a little thing where we were told the Catholics' and Protestants' eyes were further apart.

“We lived in a binary society that didn't work, and then we did this amazing thing where we actually came together, we made peace, and we made peace by actually realising that there's a middle ground.

“So I wanted to write something about actually coming from a place where we maybe did make progress, and maybe the world where it's gone at the minute – it might be nice to listen to what we've been through.”

Patrick says he wants his comedy to have an effect on people and to send a message in one way or another- this is what he is aiming to achieve with Borderline.

He told Chris: “There's no point in getting on stage unless you got something to say… the best comedy is a dance with the audience where you kind of unpack what your preconceptions are of them. They have you, and you give a little bit of yourself away, or maybe they go away laughing at themselves and thinking, actually, ‘Oh no, that is me’ or, ‘I didn't think that was me. But that's me’”.

Patrick also opened up to Chris about how his father, who was sadly killed during the troubles in Northern Ireland, has informed Borderline and the stories in the show.

He explained: “When I was 14, I used to sit in the car with my dad a couple of years before he died. We listened to Billy Conley and he was in his early 40s, and I was in my teens.

“We just laughed, and the tears were rundown in our cheeks, so there is stuff in the show about funny things that happened with me and my dad, there's stuff about what happened to him and how it changed my attitude to the world.

“It's a personal show, but there's laughs, and there's truth. And I think as you get a wee bit older, you're maybe happier, to tell the truth.”

Tickets for Patrick Kielty’s Borderline UK tour are available now at ticketmaster.co.uk.

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or  catch up on-demand here.