Entertainment

Ten Minutes with...Anne Gildea

A PIONEER of Irish comedy, Anne Gildea started out in London in the late 1980s.

She co-founded the Irish female comedy musical trio The Nualas. She is presenting her solo show at the Irish Cultural Centre Hammersmith in her show Further Adventures in Womaning on October 23

This week she took time out to talk to the Irish Post...

Anne Gildea performs at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith this month

What are you up to?

I am touring my new comedy show Further Adventures in Womaning, a follow-up to my last, How to Get The Menopause and Enjoy It. It has been touring since January and the response has been amazing.

Which piece of music always sends a shiver down your spine?

Bridget the Nun, by The Nualas. (Full disclosure, I was a Nuala).

Which performer has most influenced you?

Joan Rivers, loved her take-no-prisoners style. Wait til you hear the stuff coming out of me when I’m 80.

How did you get into showbiz?

Growing up on forty acres of bog in 70s/80s South Sligo, something about the constant rain battering the bejaysus out of the hawthorn and buachalán, and long-face cattle stuck up to their hairy knees in eternal mucky-gaps, gave me an inkling I’d be happier tripping the light fantastic on stage.

What’s on your smartphone playlist at the minute?

The best of The Nualas (full disclosure, I was a Nuala).

What makes you laugh?

Himself giving directions when we’re driving to shows.

What’s your favourite film?

Withnail and I, by a country mile.

What are your Irish roots?

My father was from South Silgo, and my mother, the Mursk-end of Mayo. They met in Manchester. We lived in Levenshulme and then moved back to his little farm.

So I grew up and was educated in the old sod as well as being Connaught down to the bone marrow, (with a bit of Manchester in me heart).

If you were told comedians were no longer welcome in Ireland, where would you go?

All the more reason to stay. I love a bit of argy bargy.

Do you have a favourite place in Ireland?

I love where I live, Dublin 8.

When they make a documentary of your life for RTÉ or BBC, who would you like as the narrator? (You can also choose anyone from the past, because with our technical wizardry that wouldn’t be a problem.)

Mavis from Coronation street. The voice of my soul.

Is there a book that has been a major influence on you?

Irish Taxation: Law & Practice, Vol 1 & 2.

Which living person do you most admire?

I really admire artists who follow the north star of their talent and work, work, work every day of their lives to produce brilliant bodies of work – like David Hockney, Morrissey, David Sedaris, etc etc.

Which person from the past do you most admire?

In the same vein as above, Enda O’Brien, John McGahern, Francis Bacon etc etc.

What piece of music would make you get up and leave a party?

When the aunties start going “Alexa, play Oh Danny Boy” …it’s goodnight from me.

What would be your motto?

Tea, anyone?

Have you a favourite quote from one of your performances?

There’s a quote from my current show I love. True story, actually. Visiting my mum who lives in Manchester, arriving into her flat, her opening gambit: “Now Anne, don’t take this the wrong way….but have you lost all interest in the way you look.”