TAKE A CHANCE AND HAVE A LAUGH

AIDAN SHIELDS, STAND-UP COMIC, TEFL TEACHER, DAD AND MC OF THE JUICEBOX COMEDY CLUB TALKS TO MARGARET RODDY ABOUT BRINGING SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN COMEDY TO DUNDALK

Tell us a bit about yourself - about the life which lead you to comedy

Middle child. Five other siblings. I am from Dundalk but grew up in Toronto, Canada. Moved there when I was seven. I was dragged there kicking and screaming in 1990 and then in 1996, when I was nice and settled, dragged kicking and screaming back to Dundalk. I was always supposed to return to Toronto, enrolling in high school year after year, but I guess the town got a grip of me fairly quickly. Smoking fags, penny sweets and running through fields on the Red Barns road soon overshadowed my urban lifestyle of riding subways and skateboarding (badly) through down town Toronto.

When I came home I went to O’Fiaich College or The Tech as it is/was known. I’m not sure that was the best school for someone who sounded like ‘a yank’, looked like ‘a grunger’ and felt like a sore thumb but I managed a few years of it.

After secondary school, I worked as a milkman for a while then I worked in the Home Improvement Centre in William’s Mall. To this day I could tell you how to build a house from scratch but have no idea how to actually do it. When I got made redundant from there I took my few pound and moved back to Toronto for a short while. My plan was to make a lot of money and meet the lads in Australia. Instead, I got a job removing asbestos for €11 an hour, spent most of my money on cigarettes and came back to Ireland a short while later.

In 2004, my girlfriend at the time told me she was pregnant. This, just before I told her I had been fired from my job in Atlantic Homecare. Now 21 and with a child on the way I decided to go to college. The likes of Trinity and UCD probably laughed at my attempts to apply for journalism with such paltry CAO points. DKIT on the other hand welcomed me with open arms onto their Cultural Studies course. It, like many liberal arts or humanities courses, had its advantages and disadvantages. One being you learn really cool stuff and actually enjoy doing each module, the other being you’re almost less employable than when you started.

College with a newborn wasn’t easy but DKIT was really cool and supportive at the time. My two year old son was in creche there and was more popular in the hallways than me. He probably should have ran for Student Union vice president instead of me. He probably would have got a lot more support. And had better policies. ‘A slide in every classroom!’

After graduating I studied to become a ‘ TEFL teacher’. However, I didn’t travel anywhere exotic with it other than Dublin where I’ve been working for last 6 years. People are funny when they ask you where you teach. ‘Primary or secondary?’. ‘ Tefl.’ ‘Oh! That’s nice. At least you travel.’ ‘I get the Matthews bus to Dublin.’ ‘Oh!’

I haven’t worked in a couple of months due to being on crutches. A couple of operations have left me leeching cups of tea off my mother while I recover. The doctors keep recommending I drink more water, but we all know nothing heals bones faster than about forty six cups of tea a day.

I have a new baby girl too. Her name is Pippa. She’s 9 month’s old. She’s sweet. She’s starting to crawl. Pretty sure she’s doing it just to spite me. She still hasn’t forgiven me for spending Christmas in hospital and not seeing her.

Were you always interested in the stage/ comedy? Did you take part in shows at school/ youth clubs?

I always liked telling jokes I’d heard or read but had never really thought about doing it. In DKIT I did a bit of acting which scared the Be Jayzus out of me but held my concentration which is not an easy thing to do. I loved the adrenaline rush of acting. I think that’s what I chase more. It was like bungee jumping without having to worry about your face smashing off the concrete 100ft below. I also joined the local Spiral Staircase theatre group which was great fun. I think I learned how NOT to act there… which is an equally important lesson. I wasn’t so interested in learning lines. I loved the idea of improvving Shakespeare. I guess I’m like a spoiled Daniel Day Lewis who would just rather Wikipedia everything.