‘You don’t move on from the past, you move on with it,’ says comic Porter on comeback trail

Comedian Al Porter says he is a changed man as he re-emerges following allegations that threatened his career and led him to re-evaluate his life.

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

But with charges dropped and some life-changing decisions made – chiefly involving getting sober – he has bounced back.

One of the first ports of call for the Dubliner has been north of the Border, because it was there 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 there because he was from Tallaght.

Porter said Campbell used to describe Tallaght as Belfast, but for not for political reasons.

He meant the helicopters and the murals and 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,” Porter said.

“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.

“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,” he said.

“People used to warn you going up, saying: ‘The audience can be loud, the audience can be raucous, the audience can heckle you’. I f**king 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 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**king 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.

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

Porter’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 mainstream media.

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

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

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

But he stresses it is an uplifting show about bouncing back and owning your flaws, while packing in the punchlines with his trademark torpedo delivery.

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 well-known Northern Irish personalities who had a massive influence on his career choice – Julian Simmons and John Linehan, aka May McFettridge.

“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.

“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.”

Al Porter plays The Limelight 2 in Belfast on Friday, The Bank in Newry on May 24, The Town House in Castlederg on May 31, and the Marketplace in Armagh on June 7