SKETCHES OF SPAIN

As Karl Spain heads to The Whale on Valentine’s Night, the Limerick lad reveals his comedy inspirations…

We are, of course, a nation of jokers, with everyone and her brother just feckin’ great at bringing the craic.

That said, there are those who bring much more craic than others, and a good case in point is Karl Spain.

For his note-perfect routine about an exasperated Joseph explaining how much Mary goes on about their lad, Jesus (“She thinks he’s God’s gift!“), the bould Karl deserves to be held aloft our shoulders and paraded through every bar and dodgy comedy club in the land.

Playing The Whale on Friday, February 14th as part of this year’s Bray Comedy Festival, we asked the lad from Limerick to let us know where all that funny came from.

And this is the reply what he wrote…

Monty Python’s Life Of Brian
I guess my first influence was Life of Brian from Monty Python. It was so funny for me as 13-year-old.

When I saw it first it made me laugh so much. It was just so outrageous, having grown up as a Catholic, that was amazing for me and I didn’t realise what a big influence it was until a couple of years into my comedy career. I had a routine about Jesus and someone asked me where did that come from and I went I don’t know and then I realised it was based on Life of Brian. It was kind of subconscious.

For me cultural influences go in and take hold somewhere in my brain and I have to work out where a joke came from when I start doing it.

Billy Connolly
With regards to stand up, there wasn’t really any on TV back in those days so it was Billy Connolly videos myself and my cousin would pay 50p each to rent.

I saw him on The Late Late Show in 1985 doing a joke about railway signal man that I think it’s about the best joke that I’ve ever heard. It made me howl, and I remember watching him on my own and laughing so much. Billy Connolly was also the first stand-up comedian I ever saw live. It was amazing, in Limerick about 1991. I told my girlfriend that I wanted to do this and she looked at me like I was crazy. It was like saying, ‘Oh, see that Jimi Hendrix fella; I’m thinking of learning to play the guitar like that’. It really was a change in my focus in life watching Billy Connolly.

Sean Hughes
The next three comedy gigs I went to were all Sean Hughes and that was inspirational too because as brilliant as he was he seemed to think like I thought.

I remember he did a joke about not smoking behind the bike shed; he used to cycle behind the tobacconist, and it was just a simple juxtaposition that when I heard it, I thought, that’s what I think like. It was great to get to know Sean later in life and I was really upset when he died. He was possibly my first hero that I got to meet.

Bill Hicks
Also around that time I would’ve become aware of the Just For Laughs festival in Montréal.

I would see American comedians like Bill Hicks, Stephen Wright and Emo Philips. It really just opened up my mind. It blew me away, what stand-up comedy could be, you know. Every one of them are so different and so unique, and I thought, this is amazing. I got to play the Just For Laughs festival in 2003, and that for me was something that will be very hard to top with any other achievement in my career, because it’s like watching the World Cup and then go on to Canada and finding myself playing there.

Tommy Tiernan
I never really went to live comedy before I did it myself.

In those days, there wasn’t much happening in Limerick; a comedy club would open and then close fairly quickly. When I went to college, we accidentally went to comedy one night, thinking we were going to something else and I had it in my head, is this what I’m meant to do. I wanted to see what the standard was like and then the headliner was so good, I think it knocked me back about four years, thinking, if you have to be that good to do stand up, just in the small clubs in Dublin, what chance do I have? That guy’s name is one that I never forget it; it was Tommy Tiernan. I always wondered, whatever happened to him?

The Larry Sanders Show
With regards TV programmes, shows like The Larry Sanders Show, Seinfeld and in more recent times, Curb your Enthusiasm, are the best for me.

You know, again, it was a different way of doing comedy. When I was younger I remember watching Fawlty Towers with my parents and my grandparents, and I just remember, it’s amazing that something could make the three generations laugh to the point of tears. I think back now and it’s amazing, the innocence I had with regards to comedy. When I was younger, a film like Trading Places would make me howl with laughter. I don’t know the last time I really laughed at a comedy film. Well, one that was made in the twenty first century…

Karl Spain plays The Whale on Friday, February 14th as part of the Bray Comedy Festival 2025. Tickets here: https://whaletheatre.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/873648845