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The week’s best interviews

INTERVIEW: Deborah McGee PHOTOS: Naomi Gaffey THE PLACE: The Morrison Hotel

I’m sitting in the ritzy lobby of the Morrison Hotel, in close proximity to the main entrance, waiting for a bearded Kevin McGahern

to breeze in, full of The Republic Of Telly joys. In his role as the comedy show’s main anchor, Kevin is a high energy personality known for his razor sharp wit and wacky sense of humour. After some time passes however, I’m still waiting for Kevin and the confused hotel staff begin to circle and approach one by one asking if I’d like to order anything: “I’m just waiting on someone...” is my continuous response keeping one eye fi rmly on the door and the other glued to my phone in case Kevin is trying to call.

The hotel bar is also in my eye-line and a forlorn fi gure at the bar dressed in a Batman jumper – his head buried into an empty glass – catches my attention. It’s Kevin. All this time the comedic crusader has been sitting literally metres away, nursing a hot whiskey to fi ght the effects of the dreaded fl u. I apologise for not recognising him and blame his lack of facial hair, which he explains he shaved for a Republic Of Telly bare faced liar sketch. “It’s weird I can feel the wind on my face,” he smiles. “I kinda like it bare now. It feels like a woman’s face.”

The interview begins... I bring Kevin to a private room to conduct the interview where we wax lyrical about The Republic Of Telly’s new season, his life as a stand up, and his burgeoning movie career! But fi rst, let’s discuss Jennifer Maguire, who will be notably absent from this season of the show as she embarks on a far more challenging chapter in her life as a new mum.

“Jenny’s up the duff – we’ve no idea how it happened,” Kevin jests. “We’re all excited to know who the father is – her probably more than anybody. The day that DNA test goes out that’s going to be an exciting day in the Maguire household.” Is Kevin the father? “No defi nitely not,” he says straight faced. “There are a few candidates but you need to do

to earth, y’know, and I think that comes across. There’s too many arse****s in the business. It’s nice to get sound people y’know. That’s going to be the little quote that you pick: the place is full of arse****s.”

How he landed the job?Kevin’s foray onto RTÉ is a direct consequence of his participation in the RTÉ Two Comedy Awards, hosted by Jennifer Maguire and Bernard O’Shea. Of course ask a comedian a serious question, and the answer to expect is a comical one. “I won a competition on the

testing these days to really be sure.” If the baby is a redhead, Kevin jokes that Bernard O’Shea is already preparing to leave the country.

Replacing Jennifer will be a catalogue of Irish female hotties from Georgia Salpa to Nadia Ford. “All the lads will be pleased to know that Georgia Salpa is there, Angela Scanlon will feature and Panti too,” he offers. Of course, none really can replace the inimitable Maguire. “Jen is very nice, very genuine,” Kevin says commending his co-presenter. “She’s a Dublin girl, she’s down

The Republic Of Telly star bravely battles through a dose of man fl u

and fi lls us in on his big news

ComedyRepublic Of TellyMonday, March 23rd, 10pm, RTE Two

Kevin McGahern

back of the RTÉ Guide,” he quips, when I ask how he landed the top TV job. “It was in 12 words or less: write why you should host The Republic Of Telly.”

It happens that Republic of Telly producer Shane Mulvey pretty much plucked Kevin from obscurity believing McGahern could handle the hotseat. “He saw something in me I suppose, so he gave me my break. There was a good six months where I was looking over my shoulder waiting for someone to replace me,” says Kevin, fearing the golden opportunity to be too good to be true.

Kevin: the movie star Good fortune is following McGahern it seems with the upcoming release of No Party For Billy Burns by fi lmmaker Padraig Conaty. “It’s a feature fi lm that we made down in Cavan last year,” he explains of the quirky concept in which he stars as cowboy fanatic Billy Burns. “It’s being edited at the moment and is due out in the next few months and hopefully it will tour a few festivals.” Kevin reveals that he was in fact the inspiration for the fi lm.

“We were at a fundraiser for cancer in Cavan and it was Western-themed so I assumed everyone would dress up as a

cowboy and when I got there no one was really dressed up, apart from the odd eccentric lad, and I just looked like an eejit. So he [Padraig] got this idea about a simple country lad living with his grandfather who is obsessed with western fi lms. We shot it down home, with a lot of local actors, and Shane Connaughton [co-writer of Oscar nominated screenplay My Left Foot] read the script and loved it and agreed to play the role of the Grandfather – so that was a huge boost. That should hopefully be coming out this year.” Kevin continues about the making of No Party For Billy Burns: “The budget was very low – I can’t remember what the fi gure was exactly, but we raised a lot of money ourselves and used Fund It and a lot of people donated towards it at home. Film is a great way to get a buzz going in a town. Some of the local guards were amazing too and lent us cars so we were very grateful to them.”

Currently in a “mixed marriage” with his long-term girlfriend Siobhan – “she’s from Longford, but we make it work” – it’s fair to say Kevin’s cup is, both professionally and personally, full. The comedy writer, stand up, and TV presenter is also co-host of this year’s GALAs, Ireland’s LGBT Awards, with Tara Flynn whom he created the topical on-line sketch Armagayddon with. “Last year there was so much talk about homophobes,”

TEA WITH...

“That’s going to be the little

quote you pick: the place is

full of arse****s”

he comments of the Saturday Night Show furore, “about whether you are allowed to say the word homophobe, and there was almost like a sympathy towards these poor homophobes who couldn’t express their feelings in a world full of love. So we sat down and wrote it, Tara put it to script and that’s why we hosted the GALAs, because of that.”

Kevin is far too modest it seems, for it’s through his evident talent to entertain that he has captured the appreciation of comedy lovers across the viewing nation. Although, it’s fair to say Kevin is not feeling too fuelled by humour today. He has man fl u, after all. ■

back of the RTÉ Guide,” he quips, cowboy and when I got there he comments of the Saturday

“WE’RE ALL EXCITED TO KNOW WHO THE FATHER OF JENNIFER’S BABY IS — HER MORE THAN ANYBODY”

With his co-presenters Bernard and Jennifer

HOW DOES HE TAKE HIS TEA? “Weak and white, just like me.” CUPS PER DAY? “I’m not a big tea man, I’m more of a coffee man, so probably one.” WHO WOULD HE MOST LIKE TO SHARE A CUPPA WITH? “A cuddle?”A CUPPA! “Oh! Nicolas Cage – I think he’s amazing – and Aidan Gillen. I think Aidan Gillen is Ireland’s Nicolas Cage. He’s really weird, he gives really weird odd performances but they are really quite good. I think he’s fascinating. Neither of them are ever boring.”

KEVIN’S TEA FACTS