Paddy Cullivan Reunites Ireland with Comedy
Star Trek said it would happen in 2024, but for Paddy Cullivan, 2032 will be the year of Irish Unification. Through hot takes on Irish history and AI-fueled visions of Ireland’s future, Paddy charts the course to unity in 2032 through his antic, visionary one-man show I Can’t Believe It’s Not Ireland, on the eve of its US Tour.
Paddy is best known for fronting The Camembert Quartet on Ryan Tubridy’s Tubridy Tonight and then The Late Late Show, playing with everyone from Sinead O’Connor to Russell Crowe to Michael Bublé. But he later shifted focus to innovative one-man multimedia shows, including Solutionism, The Joy of Brex, and his historical entertainments The 10 Dark Secrets of the Irish Revolution and The 10 Dark Secrets of 1798.
In I Can’t Believe…Paddy provides a fresh new interpretation of Ireland’s past from St Patrick to partition and invites the audience to think big with him in envisioning a welcoming, inclusive, and dynamic future united Ireland. The US tour opens in San Francisco on Mar. 1, with stops scheduled for Kansas City, Portland, ME, Boston, New York, and more.
Martin and John also preview their upcoming “Irish Stew Gets Lost in Belfast Road Trip,” featuring a dozen episodes recorded in and around Northern Ireland’s rapidly transforming capital city. And do forgive them for a little humblebragging—they just got back from Dublin where they celebrated winning Bronze in the Irish Pod Awards Best Hosting Duo/Trio category and taking home the Gold as the 2024 Best Society & Culture Podcast.
Open your ears to a new way to understand Ireland’s past and future with this Irish Stew sample of Paddy Cullivan’s I Can’t Believe It’s Not Ireland.
Paddy Links:
Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 1; Total Episode Count: 104
00:00 - Introduction
05:18 - A Soft French Cheese
09:17 - A Man of Many Hats
10:42 - Irish Identity
14:22 - I Can't Believe It's Not Ireland
20:37 - Breaking Political Logjams With Comedy
26:46 - Receptivity In The North
29:13 - Bringing The Show To America
32:38 - Pax Hibernia
35:24 - Good Irishness
39:27 - Performance Takeaways
43:21 - Seamus Plug
44:54 - Credits
Paddy Cullivan
Historical Entertainer
Paddy Cullivan was born in Galway. His father Tom Cullivan is a classical composer from Cavan town, his artist mother Nancy Byrne came to Ireland from New Jersey in 1965. So, Paddy is an Irish American in the other direction!
Educated at the non-denominational Mount Temple (where U2 went to school), Paddy studied Visual Communication in the National College of Art and Design while embarking on a music career. With his band The Camembert Quartet, Paddy became House leader on Ryan Tubridy’s ‘Tubridy Tonight’ for 5 years, moving with Ryan to ‘The Late Late Show’ for another decade. The band played with everyone from Sinead O’Connor to Russell Crowe to Michael Bublé, before Paddy decided in 2019 to go full-time with his innovative one-man shows.
From the Easter Rising centenary 2016 Paddy felt the simple approach to commemoration was avoiding the complexity of Irish history. In response, he wrote ‘historical entertainments,’ one-man shows featuring wry comedy, hundreds of images, original songs, and deep historical research. With ‘The 10 Dark Secrets of the Irish Revolution’ (2016) and ‘The 10 Dark Secrets of 1798 (2018) Paddy questioned official narratives in an entertaining and enlightening way. During Covid, Paddy focused on two of the secrets, producing ‘The Murder of Wolfe Tone’ and ‘The Murder of Michael Collins’ in 2021, bringing them on the road for the next two years before bringing his new show out in 2024.
‘I Can’t Believe it’s Not Ireland’ brings a new interpretation of our past from St Patrick to partition – and an intriguing, positive v… Read More
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