Al’s well that ends well... comedian Porter heads north on comeback trail

Dublin stand-up returns six years after addiction issues and sexual misconduct claims

COMEBACK king Al Porter is a changed man as he re-emerges after allegations that threatened his career and saw him re-evaluate his life.

The stand-up comedian hit rock bottom after a perfect storm of instant fame got mixed with addiction and accusations of inappropriate behaviour.

But with dropped charges and life-changing decisions — chiefly years of sobriety after ditching booze and drugs — he has bounced back.

And one of the first ports of call for the Dubliner has been north of the border, because it was here he developed his comic chops in the first place.

The love affair began when he came to the attention of agent Ruairi Campbell, a Derry man who booked him gigs at The Empire in Belfast and told him he could cut the mustard here because he was from Tallaght.

He told the Belfast Telegraph: “Ruairi used to describe Tallaght as Belfast, but for no political reason, which he’s right about — we had the helicopter and the murals... and we have the low-level tension.

“Ruairi loved me, and most people when they start doing stand-up, they would be gigging local for ages and then eventually try and get more elsewhere.

“But Ruairi was having none of it, he was like: ‘I love this wee gay fella! He’s hilarious, he’s going to be a star’. He really believed in me.”

After debuting at Dublin’s Laughter Lounge Al, aka Alan Kavanagh, soon found himself heading over the border.

He added: “A lot of people, their first couple of years gigging would be in their locality, but the next place under Ruairi from Derry’s kind of mentorship, the next place that he knew was The Empire in Belfast.

“So when I was 19 they were my first gigs. I literally bounced between Tallaght or Dublin’s north inner city and then Belfast.

“Every second Tuesday I was getting the bus up and I would come up and play The Empire.

“And it suited me down to the ground because it is very like what I had come from.

“People used to warn you going up: ‘The audience can be loud, the audience can be raucous, the audience can heckle you’. I f***ing loved that. I was all about that. I had an opener at the time. People can tell a mile away that I’m camp; when I came out, my friends were like: ‘You need to come in’.

“I’ve always been camp, it’s not a put-on thing.

“I had people say years ago: ‘Is that like a character for stage?’ And I’m going: ‘No’.

“Who would want that life? Who would decide in Tallaght ‘do you know what would be hilarious? If I pretend to be f***ing Charles Hawtrey’. This is just something I’m born with.

“But I used to do a joke in The Empire where I’d say: ‘Oh, my comedy brings together both communities ... gay and straight’, and you get the laugh. And I have fun with stuff like that.

“I used to joke about having a one night stand with a fellow from Belfast — which is true — who was like 45-50 when I was 20. And he was like: ‘Don’t tell anybody you’re meeting me’. You know, all this kind of stuff, and I said ‘it was our Good Friday agreement’.

“I used to get all of these laughs, so I’d go: ‘I was wearing my fake tan, so I was the Orange man’.

“They were all cheesy jokes for that time, and I was working with the likes of Colin Murphy, he was just so good.”

Al’s career rocketed after that, but then came crashing down in 2017 after accusations of inappropriately touching several men were made about him online and in the media.

All charges were dropped, and he explained the chain of events on a blog he still keeps on his website that he wrote on his return from a six-year hiatus.

In it he states he remains “genuinely sorry” if any past behaviour caused harm.

And in his new stage show Al tells each audience up front: “I f***ed up. You don’t move on from the past, you move on with it and with the lessons you learned.”

But he stresses that it is an uplifting show about bouncing back and owning your flaws, while packing in the punchlines with his trademark torpedo delivery and cheeky, unfiltered take on working-class camp comedy.

The 31-year-old has fond memories of working with The Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty on his BBC show Delete, Delete, Delete.

But he singled out two wellknown local personalities who had a massive influence on his career choice — Julian Simmons and John Linehan, aka May Mcfettridge.

He said: “I’ve never seen a dame as good as May Mcfettridge. I was saying that to my friend Stuart, who produces the panto I’m in and who is The Late Late Toy Show producer, and he agreed with me.

“He’s a bloke in a dress, but the experience, the one-liners, the wealth and catalogue of material he can rely on is savage.

“And even at the age he is now — I only saw him last year — he’s still so good.

“And then Julian! I remember when I was younger, I was a weird little kid, and I used to tell people: ‘I want to be on TV’.

The teachers would say: ‘Oh, you want to be an actor?’

“And I was like: ‘No, I want to be Julian’. And I meant Julian from UTV. That’s what I wanted to do. I used to do impressions to make my Nana laugh.

“I’d go: ‘Coming up now, Deirdre’s in a pickle, but will Ken get caught out?’

“All the signs were there — what kid wants to be Julian from UTV?

“But I saw people like Paul O’grady or Julian and I saw they were like me, and I didn’t mean gay. What I meant was they’re over the top. They like a funny suit. They’re flamboyant.”

‘I f ***ed up. You don’t move on from past, you move on with it and lessons you learn’