Aussie comedian Damo Clark is back with a bang after being cooped up because of Covid restrictions.
The funny guy finally has a mic in his hand and an audience laughing again after spending his time at home with a remote control car, a stegosaurus with a missile on his back, and playing Need for Speed on the Xbox with his son Max.
He told Dublin Live: “During Covid I focused on the positives and there were a lot of them. Max was two when lockdown came in, so it was ideal family time for me.
"I never stopped gigging too. I still did it outside, on streets, anywhere with a microphone. It just scaled things back. If you talk for a living, you don’t need to do much but it is better when people like your jokes.
“The happiest places on earth are the ones with communities in them, it doesn’t matter about wealth or where you are, it’s the people. I got a good sense of that during the pandemic, when it was the 5k I got to know my neighbours, know the ones working in the shop.
“Self service is so easy but it’s nicer to have interaction. A little smile, eye contact and hello makes such a difference. It’s so easy not to talk to people but over lockdown I really appreciated the small things.
“I spent the lockdowns writing jokes, editing clips, putting them out there, and then playing with Max and hanging out with Sandra.”
Damo said goodbye to life down under when he met his partner Sandra, a Dublin woman, and he found it extremely easy to fit into life in the capital.
He said: “Max’s mum is from Dublin and we met in Melbourne when she was backpacking. When she said she was from Ireland I just said that that’s where I had to go next.
“I started stand up in 1996 when I was just 18, I was gigging everywhere that I could. Social media wasn’t around at the time but email was.
“The stand up comedian community is very small, if you know someone, they know someone and that person knows someone else, so we’re all connected in some way.
“Des Bishop runs the International Comedy Club so I just emailed him and it just happened that there was a cancellation the next night. So my first weekend in Ireland, I ended up being on stage so I just hit the ground running.
“The Irish audience is really up for the craic. I do find that Australia and Ireland are similar where we can take a joke and we like being ripped to shred. They’re very similar even though they’re so far apart, we have the same sense of humour.
“Everyone knows Home and Away and Neighbours so there was no real transition when I moved here, I was amazed with how many people go out to comedy here, people seem to be out drinking here anyway and Dublin is so close knit.”
Dubliners have been embracing Damo for years, we’ve loved his quirkiness and mad craic, but where did it all begin?
“I always loved comedy, I think it came from cartoons like Looney Tunes, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, the classic characters. I love anything that is over the top. Then I saw people like Eddie Murphy making jokes and I was like, you can do that?
“I’ve a younger brother, Daniel, he was the sort of popular one, he always had a girlfriend, and was good at sport. Meanwhile, I was the weirdo drawing pictures in my room, I loved the Simpsons so I’d melt the army men toys like Bart did, and cut off other toy pieces and melted them together. I’d army men with dinosaur heads, I was a bit like Sid from Toy Story.
“In school I was told I’d ADD, Eddie Mullarkey who runs the Craic Den too, he has it too. The two of us are trying to run a club but we get distracted by squirrels and all sorts of stuff.
“Learning for six to eight hours in school didn’t work for me and I felt like a terrible, dumb idiot because I wasn’t interested in things like maths, I’m sure I would’ve been good at something if they gave me a chance."
Now Damo, and his comedy pals who take to the stage of the Craic Den, and according to the comedian, they guarantee the best night out.
“Eddie started the Craic Den a couple of years before the ‘Pan-do’ and I was there all the time. After the lockdown people were ready to stand up again, you could feel the buzz, it was electric. We’ve regulars, new people, and tourists.
“It’s a top class night. People relate to the jokes, they’re not Covid heavy but we’d joke about lockdown, loneliness and being sick.
"People relate to it, it’s kind of like group therapy."
You can check out more about the Craic Den Comedy Club here.
To get the latest breaking news straight to your inbox, sign up for our free newsletter.
