RTE SHOW KANE AT A PERFECT TIME FOR DEIRDRE
Comedian feared for finances after gigs axed by Covid crisis
All of my live work is gone so if I didn’t have it ( RTE show), I would have no work DEIRDRE O’KANE
YESTERDAY
DEIRDRE O’kane has revealed her new RTE TV show came as a saving grace at a time when she feared for her finances after all other work was cancelled.
The comic, 52, is kicking off her new chat show Deirdre O’kane Talks Funny tonight with fellow Irish comedian Pat Shortt as her first guest.
But after a year of constant cancellations due to the pandemic, the funny woman admitted the new show couldn’t have come at a better time in her life.
Asked if she was excited to take on the new series, she said: “Yes, I am. In particular now because all of my live work is gone so if I didn’t have it, I would have absolutely no work.
“The Sky show has just been put back again like all of the tours. I have resigned myself to not working until the New Year and trying to just write and create stuff at the minute. “
Speaking about her financial worries, Louth native Deirdre said she, like many other artists, always worries, without adding the stress of a pandemic.
She added: “I worry. I always worry financially.”
After decades of experience in the industry, she said she has learned the ups and downs come part and parcel with the job.
Deirdre added: “I ’m pretty representative of most artists in that I have a good year, followed by a bad year, followed by a good year, followed by a half decent year, followed by a bad year.
“But it is fine. That is the nature of being a self- employed artist.
“The thing about us I feel is when you have a good year, it usually is meant to last for three years so you always have to have this little fund for the rainy day which is just around the c o r n e r a n d I g u e s s people think that you have money because you’re on the telly – but this is Ireland.
“Ironically, this i s a g o o d y e a r , h a v i n g expected it to be a terrible year.”
However, t he Drogheda woman expressed concern for her pals in the business who are struggling to make ends meet as the live industry continues to be decimated by the pandemic.
She said: “Most of my friends are in a lot of trouble. I’m very worried about my friends who don’t have TV work who are dependent on live work. I ’m genuinely worried for them.
“They have mortgages, they have small children, it is really tough.”
Deirdre i s l eading the charge for women in TV entertainment, taking on a prime time Saturday night slot in the RTE One schedule with her new show.
A s k e d i f s h e f e l t e mpow e r e d b y t h e opportunity, she said: “Oh God, yeah, it’s time. “I mean it’s not like I ’m the first, I know that there’s been others but I don’t think there’ve been many prime time slots with women in entertainment.
“I think on my end in entertainment there’s been slim pickings so I am delighted and I ’m kind of delighted it’s now and that I am the age that I am.
“I don’t really know that I would’ve been ready or maybe as good as I ’m hoping I will be now with life lived.”
Deirdre O’kane Talks Funny i s on RTE One and RTE Player tonight at 9.10pm.