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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Entertainment
Sandra Mallon

Dermot Kennedy admits Jimmy Fallon's US chat show is 'an intimidating environment'

Singer Dermot Kennedy has said performing on Jimmy Fallon's chat show was an "intimidating environment".

The Giants hitmaker sang his new song One Life on Jimmy Fallon's The Tonight Show last month.

Dermot admitted performing in front of a TV camera makes him very nervous.

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Speaking to Pamela Joyce on her Today FM show, he said: "Telly does it to me. There’s no gig that really phases me. I don’t get nervous before playing gigs, it's more exciting, but TV does make me nervous.

"With him (Jimmy Fallon) doing the Fallon show, you walk out and it’s the first time you meet him introducing you to play and you are just really kind of like ‘oh wow you’re that man I’ve seen on the internet like 600,000 times’.

"So it is quite confusing and The Roots house band, who are pretty much one of the best bands in the world, are just standing there staring at you while you play. It’s a very intimidating environment.”

But he said it was "important" to tour beyond Dublin.

He said: "It’s important to get around the country and not do everything in Dublin. I think if you just announce four or five gigs in Dublin you’re just going to make people from other parts of the country travel up anyway so it just felt like the right thing to do."

On March 10, Today FM is hosting The Big Busk for Focus Ireland as the station aims to raise vital funds to help in the fight to end homelessness in Ireland.

On how his busking roots helped him in becoming a performer to sold out arenas, Dermot said: “Like I was saying, I don’t necessarily get nervous for the big shows now and I think a lot of that is down to busking.

"There’s nothing more intimidating than opening up your case out onto a busy street and trying to make people pay attention to you so that makes gigs seem quite comfortable to me now.”

On his advice to up and coming buskers, he added: "It’s kind of a balance of being open to other buskers but also stand your ground.

"Busking is a funny one in the sense that it can be very territorial and people can kind of hit you with the thing.

"I remember busking in a spot years ago and some guy started telling me to get out of the way because he wanted the spot and I said ‘well you can’t just have it’.

"He was saying that he was there for twenty five years and I was like ‘great well I’ve been here for about two months’.

"It’s a real education, just back yourself. Don’t let anyone stop you from doing what you want to do."

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