Swashbuckling Ciarán wins Edinburgh award
SARAH Millican, Tim Vine, Harry Hill, Milton Jones... and now Ciarán Dowd!
The Drogheda man has joined the list of talented comedians to scoop the prestigious ‘Best Newcomer’ prize at this year’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards, taking top billing for his hotly anticipated solo debut as ‘ total butthead, shameless libertine and incomparable swordsman’, Don Rodolfo.
The 34-year-old from Beabec on the Dublin Road, who now calls London his home, says he was overwhelmed at receiving the award at a ceremony on Saturday night, which came totally out of the blue.
“My reaction was complete shock, as I had convinced myself, and made my peace, that there wasn’t a chance they would give it to a guy in a year of so many breakout and strong shows from the other nominees,” Ciarán told the Drogheda Independent.
“Everything after that is a blur, the speech, the interviews, the photoshoot - although at one point the photographer had to ask me to look less manic!”
The grotesque love child of Don Juan and Don Quixote, Don Rodolfo takes the audience on a journey through his conquests, his adventures and every stupid thought in his idiot head. From his violent birth and dysfunctional youth to his first great love; from the murder of o his father to his hunt for the killer, we follow Don Rodolfo around a world usually reserved for great literature and awful TV adaptations.
“In tone, it’s a bit like if Will Ferrell did an adaptation of Zorro with zero budget, with lots of storytelling, big set pieces and music” says s Ciarán, whose proud parents Oliver and P Philina Dowd still live in the town.
“I went to St Mary’s primary and secondary school but didn’t do drama or anything similar back then but at the weekends I was p part of the Droichead Youth Theatre. which was an incredible resource and I think really gave me a love for performing, and the whole world around it.”
Ciarán made his screen debut in Darren Thornton’s Drogheda-based drama ‘Love is the Drug’ in 2004 and has appeared in Josh (BBC1), Gameface (E4), Zapped (Dave) and Drunk History (Comedy Central), and this year he can be seen in Stephen Merchants feature film Fighting with My Family (Film4) and Keith Lemon: Coming in America (ITV2).
“My reaction was complete shock... everything after that was a blur”