The Dirt Birds back in An Tain
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HIT comedy duo Sinead Culbert and Sue Collins are set to play their third sold out show as The Dirt Birds in An Tain Arts Centre on Friday night.
Now, over a year after they first took beauty vlogger Dee and model Andrea, Dubs Carmel and Debs and yummy mummies Eleanor and Emer on the road, even bigger success beckons.
Having first gained Irish fans through their internet posts, they are now set to win fans across the water after The Irish Post website shared their video about the challenge faced by mothers getting children out for school every morning.
‘It’s fantastic,’ says Dundalk native Sinead, whose first ventured onto the stage with youth theatre back in the ‘ 90s.
‘ The Irish Post contacted us and asked if they could share our videos and RSVP and Image magazine have also been highlighting our work.’
Sinead and Sue, who also performs with The Nualas, have struck a cord with Irish audiences for their no holds barred slices of life from a woman’s perspective.
‘I really think there is a market for our material,’ says Sinead. ‘ Women want to see themselves as they are under represented on stage, especially comedy.’
It is, she admits, particularly difficult for women to break into the comedy side of show business, and both Sue and herself spent several years working on projects and nearly ‘making it’, before embarking on The Dirt Birds.
‘It’s all about women being brave enough to put themselves out there as it can be easy to be intimidated.’
Their hilarious sketches, posted to Facebook and Youtube, went viral and live shows followed.
Their performances attract a largely female audience who often incorporate the show into ‘a girls’ night out.’
‘Our shows contain ‘clean humour’ so we get audiences of all ages. We’ve had 90 year olds at our shows and sometimes several generations of the same family will come which is lovely.’
‘It’s gangs of women who want to go out and laugh at something they can relate to.’
And as they portray the trials and tribulations of modern Irish women with an affectionate humour, The Dirt Birds have certainly found a niche in the entertainment market.
Sinead is bowled over that they have been asked to bring the show to An Tain Arts Centre for a third time.
‘Dundalk audiences have been very supporting and Paul (the manager of An Tain) has asked us to come back a third time as lots of people weren’t able to get tickets the last times we performed here.’
Sinead says they are three quarters way through writing a new show for their ‘Dangerous Irish Women’ tour which is lined up for the autumn.
They are now on the final leg of The Dirt Birds Live tour, which has taken them around the country over the past 18 months, with dates in Birr, Derry and Wexford in the coming months.