Irish comedian Neil Delamere is set to perform his biggest ever solo show at the SSE Arena at the end of this month, where he'll take to the stage in front of thousands of fans.
The 43-year old, who is originally from Co Offaly, has found himself emerge as one of the most recognised comedians in Northern Ireland, and counts himself as a 'local blow-in' on the scene.
As he prepares for the show following two years of lockdowns and sporadic gigs here and there, he told us that he's excited to finally be getting back to what he does best.
"It's very exciting getting to do this," he said. "One of the reasons I booked this gig was because we were mid-pandemic, and I wanted something big and brash to look forward to.
"This is going to be my biggest solo show ever. I've done big shows before as part of other line-ups, but this is by far my biggest solo show. It really speaks to the rude good health that comedy is in here in Belfast, and in Derry and throughout the country. I'm obviously a blow-in here, but I'm about as local a blow-in as you can get, so I appreciate people coming out to see me."
Despite his upbringing in the Republic, Neil has found massive success in Northern Ireland. He puts the credit for that squarely on his frequent appearances on a certain long-standing BBC NI panel show...
"Three words: The Blame Game. That was what introduced me to audiences and how I got my name about. Then once I'd establishment myself a bit, I just started into gigging every single year, doing the same same venues every year. There's a lot to be said for going back to the same places with a new show. As a comedian, you're trying to become a comedy Six Nations - where you're part of the calendar and people look forward to seeing you do something new every year.
"And The Blame Game introduced audiences to me but it also introduced me to all the incredible news here. For every show I'd have to know everything that's going on in Stormont, everything that's going on in local politics - so I'd be reading the Belfast Telegraph, the Daily Mirror, the Newsletter, the Irish News. I'd be absorbing it all and then making comedy out of it."
There's no shortage of material to come from local politics here...
Neil agrees. "Somebody once asked me, 'Is it easy to write about what's happening here?' And I thought, the more extreme that someone is, or the more extreme their words are, there more comedy you can get out of it. I always think of countries which are seen as more moderate - like Sweden or somewhere - and I'm wondering, do their comedians have as much to say? When you have politicians here and look at the way they're taking very - let's say - spirited positions, they're almost begging to be mocked."
Neil isn't the first locally based comedian to perform a headline show at the SSE Arena. In fact, the last two years have seen over a dozen big comedy shows at the venue, with the likes of Paddy Raff, Shane Todd, Colin Geddis and the Belfast Girls all performing. Neil agrees that Northern Ireland has been going through something of a comedy Golden Age for in recent years.
"I think what's brilliant is that there's different routes to a viable career in comedy. You don't necessarily have to travel around Europe to be a success, you can stay locally and get a great audience.
"That's the difference between now and 15 years ago. 15 years ago you might need to get on TV to make your career, and that meant that there were gatekeepers - a producer who deemed whether you were good enough to be on a panel show or a sketch show.
"Whereas now, you look at a lot of the people playing big arenas - they did it themselves. They made their own sketches, their own podcasts. What's brilliant about that is that none of those guys have never forced their content on anyone. Their audience goes to see them because they want to see them. So people have different avenues to get their comedy across.
And then if there's one good thing to come out of Covid, it's that people turned to their passions. Look at the amount of comedians who have found success during lockdown with online sketches and things like that. We're getting so much great comedy at the moment."
Neil also had a turn on Dancing With The Stars recently, which he has fond memories of.
"It was such craic, I have to say. The comedians who did it before said it would be the most fun I'd ever have on TV and they were right. I was very nervous - much more nervous than I'll be doing the SSE Arena if I'm honest - but I enjoyed it. If I'm in a comedy gig, I can normally find a route out of something going wrong, but the dancing was all brand new to me."
On that note, does Neil have memories of a comedy gig that went particularly wrong?
"I just remember being very nervous at gigs when I was starting out. I did a late night gig in Edinburgh at about 1 in the morning one year, and it's renowned for being rough because you're just performing to hammered people. That gig was more about surviving than anything else, it's like Hunger Games or Mad Max - you're just hoping you can leave intact. But thankfully I don't get as nervous now, because people coming to your gigs now are there to see you , so it makes it that bit easier."
In recent weeks, there've been conversations around potentially offensive jokes and how comedians and audiences should treat them. In particular, British comedian Jimmy Carr was criticised for an offensive joke against the genocide of the Traveller community during the Holocaust. Does Neil think comedians have to be careful when they're penning content for stand-up gigs?
"I think when you're a comedian the main thing is that you have to be able to stand over your own stuff," he said. "So when you write something, you might be thinking, 'What am I trying to say here? Is it offensive?' And you have to live with that answer. You're not responsible necessarily for how someone interprets it. So if was satirical, for example, and someone doesn't get the satire behind it, you just have to be able to stand over what you say above all.
"But I would classify myself as a storyteller in my comedy, so when you're telling stories about something that's happening to you, you don't have to worry as much."
