TOM REEVES, 85

TOM was one of four children born and raised on Sundrive Road in Crumlin. His late younger sister was the celebrated actress Anita Reeves, not only on the stage, but on screen too in The Ballroom of Romance, Neil Jordan’s Angel and Into The West.

Her last performance was as Juno in Juno And The Paycock, in the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, months before her death from a brain tumour in 2016.

Tom was famous too, but under his stage name Shaun Connors. Much in demand as a comedian, he was a big draw during the cabaret boom of the 1970s and 1980s, and often found himself part of the bill on three separate shows in a single night. He appeared on television in the UK with Marti Caine on New Faces, shared top billing with the likes of Shirley Bassey and PJ Proby, and played New York’s Carnegie Hall supporting tenor Frank Patterson.

‘I started off as a singer, and doing compere in pubs and singing at weddings,’ Tom says, and then laughs, ‘I couldn’t sing now to save my life.’

At the weddings, he started to tell a few jokes and when he went to live in Manchester, he contacted an agent and handed over his business card. The agent said ‘that’s no good’ and disappeared for a minute. When he came back, he gave Tom a piece of paper and said ‘that’s your name from now on — Shaun Connors. Drop the singing. You’re Irish and you’d be good at telling jokes.’

He played the circuit around England, but there was difficult times too, not least when he was appearing in Birmingham on the night of the pub bombings in 1974 that killed 21 people. ‘It wasn’t very nice,’ he says. ‘There were a couple of shouts up to the stage.’

With the cabaret scene taking off in Ireland, he wanted to come home. ‘I was only back a short while and I started getting calls,’ he says, ‘only to find they were tours in England with Brendan Shine and also shows in America. I came home to do more stuff here, but I finished up going back and forth.’

He also played local venues, such as Clontarf Castle, the Braemor Rooms and the Tudor Rooms. The club circuit took a bit of a toll, thanks to the usual temptations. ‘I was good at the drinking — I used to practise every day,’ Tom says. ‘Eventually, I got help. I’ll be 33 years off it in March, and I’m off the cigarettes 40-odd years.

‘I would not be doing the exercise I do now if I hadn’t given up the drinking and smoking. Even in the clubs, you’d be standing on the stage and you could see the smoke rising up, and you were taking all that in. I’m lucky that all I have is a touch of asthma and that it doesn’t really bother me.’

Nowadays, Tom still drives a taxi, and when he’s not at work, he exercises in a shed he has kitted out with a punchbag. His recipe for longevity is simple, and he delivers the punchline as any professional would: ‘Don’t smoke, drink, back women, or ride horses,’ he says with a laugh.

Getting serious, he puts it down to keeping his mind active by reading newspapers every day from cover to cover — except the rugby pages, because he thinks not enough is being done about concussion in the sport — and exercise. He regularly goes ten rounds with the punchbag, followed by 200 sit-ups, 50 back exercises and lifting small weights. He has seven children and lives with his second wife Patsy, while remaining on great terms with his first. As we speak, he is about to head to his son’s restaurant, Reeves in Templeogue, to collect a dinner for delivery to his first wife, who has recently had a hip replacement.

He has retired a few times, but has always been drawn back when invited to perform at special events for friends. His fear, he says, is forgetting the punchlines, though when it happened to him once and he said ‘lads, I can’t remember how this ends’, he got the biggest laugh of the night.

Just last week, he got a call from a promoter in the United States. She invited him to appear on a Greek Islands cruise, playing three ten-minute slots and doing a bit of compering, and he accepted, even though the offer is for August 2024.

‘So I’m back in business again,’ Tom says, and sardonically adds: ‘I’m 85, like. She might be looking for another comedian. I could be gone to my maker!’

‘I’m lucky that all I have is a touch of asthma’