I treat comedy and acting as a business – and it is paying off

Hard-working actor/comedian NORMA SHEAHAN was so determined to make a decent living in the arts that she once finished off a voiceover job while having contractions! She tells us how she grafted hard until her income matched that of fellow students from her commerce degree. And boy is she busy! A mainstay of much-loved comedy Bridget & Eamon, she’s prepping a new play in the Abbey – John B Keane’s The Matchmaker, starring Jon Kenny. She has also starred in Holding, Mooneboy, Dead Still, The Clinic, Damo And Ivor and has just ‘wrapped’ a new movie with Colm Meaney. Meanwhile, she’s on the 75th episode of her Heal Your Hole podcast.

Was Bridget & Eamon as much craic to make as it is to watch?

It was bonkers. All down to the brilliance of Jennifer Zamparelli and Bernard O’Shea, who both wrote, acted and produced. They gathered a lot of funny-looking mentalists together to create four series of nuttiness. Honoured to be included. So how’s the acting/stand up comedy business?

Working my balls off and loving it. Showbusiness doesn’t have pay standards – you can film opposite someone who’s being paid 100 times more than you for the gig. Depends on the performer’s power to put bums on seats. Theatre is more equal. Presently I’m preparing The Matchmaker by John B Keane for the Gaiety, and sales will be brilliant because legend Jon Kenny from D’Unbelievables is the lead.

Do people expect you to perform all the time? Is that a bit annoying? Nah, I’ve no filter, so I blab away of my own free will. But I’ve been around a few big comedians who need a permanent audience – they’re exhausting after 20 minutes. They buzz you up and then suck the life out of ya.

I got great advice from my funny sister Paula. She said, “Norma you’re weird, and that can be funny, but the minute you try to be funny, it doesn’t work. So don’t try to be funny”.

Any advice for someone who wants to get started in this career? Can it be done part time?

Only do it if you’re tough enough for the rejection, the criticism. You’re back on the s*** heap every morning, having to recreate yourself, with close to no security. It’s an addiction, an obsession; you only do it because you’re a masochist

Seriously, do you have to be a bit money-savvy to make a living in the arts?

Yes you do. I make a living from it. My mother made me get a commerce degree before I went to RADA. So I spotted that my UCD pals were on far more than me. I was furious about this because I knew I was worth more than what I was on. So I grafted, until my arts income measured up to their income. For me it was step up, or pack it in.

You seem to be able to diversify well. Is that the key to doing well here, where maybe one single stream of income mightn’t be as much as say, in the UK?

Well my RADA peers aren’t all earning good acting wages, so I’m not sure where you’re going with the UK thing. What the UK does have over us are better contracts and residuals. Ireland is usually a buyout deal. I diversify because I know I need five milking cows at all times. Filming, theatre, stand-up, voiceovers, radio, podcasts, writing, etc… But most teachers, guards, parents, journalists etc need to have a few jobs to survive too.

How are your money management skills?

I’ve never missed a return, and I’ve a great agent – Lorraine Brennan, I work hard and I trust in tomorrow. Ever been ripped off or treated badly as a consumer? What did you do?

No, any stupid choices I took responsibility for. And, yes, there have been a few of those! But I turn the page. Learn. Move on.

How are Irish people with money do you think?

I think we’re tortured in Ireland by thinking we need to own houses or land. And all it does is cause fights in the will when you die. We’re probably still traumatised from having our land taken.

Guilty treat?

Screw guilt, we got enough of that from the Church.

Best and worst investments?

Best would be any cars I’ve bought. Not for monetary reasons, more for freedom. Love driving – I even turned the car into a studio during Covid for my weekly podcasts and all my voiceovers. I’ve no bad investments, apart from bad timing on a property investment before the crash. But sure that’s all grand now again.

■ Norma stars in The Matchmaker in the Gaiety (Sept 12–17) with Jon Kenny after which she will be touring nationwide with a production of Shirley Valentine. Dates so far include the Cork Opera House

(Sept 24) and Bray Mermaid Theatre (Oct 22).