 able to do both obviously not at the same time you know and and do you use in your live shows do you do you use anything from you know you're you're nine to five job in it I mean are the things that you pick up along the way I could slap that under the show yeah kind of but not in the way maybe that you'd expect because obviously counseling there's a certain amount of confidentiality involved so I'm not gonna go on stage and go oh you won't believe what Mrs. Johnson from one two three below drive has told me the other night about her and her family you know it would be more speaking in a sort of general sense about the way in which depression sort of affects people's lives and then perhaps the way in which a counseling relationship works and what I'm really poking fun of is is the defensive mechanisms that people have that they don't realize they have that can sustain depression okay okay so so there are elements that you put into the show and identity is protected obviously but there's you know there's the certain elements of the whole thing that you know that that are funny yeah oh yeah yeah absolutely yeah and it's yeah sorry now go ahead but there's plenty of I mean it's not all based on real life is a lot of whimsical silliness as well as her yeah oh yeah absolutely and there's you know there's plenty of stuff about Northern Ireland as well and the sort of troubled relationship it has with itself and I suppose sometimes you know with Northern Ireland comedy there's a lot of there's a lot of green and orange jokes that tend to happen so you know and I wouldn't necessarily criticize that but I do talk about that and I you know I do plenty of green and orange jokes myself I guess I'm talking about it in a way that examines why it's still relevant and why we still do joke supportive well I suppose it's okay well for most comedians you can't you cannot ignore a real life and no matter how bizarre you use you stretch the store or how bizarre you stretch the stories out or no matter what route you go down it you know it has to have some sort of a grounding so in your case it says what's around you in the you know the political landscape and all the rest of it and also then the sort of better the mental health landscape and work as a counsellor so you've got plenty of material to dip into yeah certainly yeah plenty to draw on you know unlike Freud obviously not the most credible voice when it comes to mental health but Freud used to characterize jokes as a defensive mechanism that you know you would do jokes about things that you're secretly afraid of which is why so many I think male comedians would joke about romantic dysfunction and why so many female comedians would joke about being afraid of being murdered really went out on a date or something like that you know in many ways that the things that we're joking about while they may seem small sometimes they're actually talking about something that's very big I see you're using your training now as a counsellor you're starting to go deep there I find that all the time you get comedians who are you know who are very funny people but then you have them on and they're chatting about a gig and it's very hard to just flick of a switch to sort of turn it back to comedy and be I'm not asking you to tell stories and it's only natural but tell me about your you do some podcasts as well is it called therapy geeks I do I guess it's me and my friend Louise Taylor she's also a counsellor she did comedy herself there for a number of years she's coming back there now because she was doing a PhD so it was something that was quite hard for her to juggle but yeah we do we podcast or we chat about therapy in a way that's sort of light-hearted and sometimes we'll pick different topics you know like anger or forgiveness or anything like that we'll talk about that for an hour but the the entry if you like is therapy yeah absolutely no we're very passionate about the topic and about mental health and about human relations and things like that I think it's interesting John what you're saying there as well about you know when you when you get comedians on sometimes they can be quite introverted and to me I think that's really interesting because the stereotype of a comedian is always like oh they were the class clown in school and you know many of them are but to me I think one of the real factors if you're just if you're trying to to catch the onset of becoming a comedian at a young age and see what one of the early factors is it wouldn't necessarily be class clowning but perhaps repeating a joke if you know what I mean so like so somebody young who sees a joke as a resource that can be reused or yeah and told to one person and then told in a different way to another that it's they say a joke as a thing rather than a moment you know what I mean so been able to sort of own a joke yeah exactly yeah yeah and like and to carry it around you know whereas for like an audience they have to say a joke is something that just happened in that moment but you know often it can be something that I mean there's plenty of stuff that's pre-written and you know good comedians would be able to blend it with crowd work and stuff that's in the moment as well but I think that if you're if you've maybe I'm talking about it like like check your kids for this like it's an illness but I guess I'm saying that maybe if you know some young people who you know you hear them tell a joke to to their mates and then they'll go to a different group of mates and tell the exact same joke and maybe even the exact same way I feel like that's that's maybe somebody who's more likely to turn into a comedian when they're older than somebody who's say the class clown but there was a time when most comedians did just that they told jokes but now it's all about stories and we're sitting earlier there about how you know some of them are actually based loosely on reality but it must be really hard to come up with original material. James Corden got into trouble there fairly recently he retold a joke or repurposed a joke and I mean you've got to when you walk out there and you start telling stories they're they're all you know they're all yours and and I don't think like other comedians that do you know similar things they're not going to listen to another comedian and go oh you know what that sounds good I'll write that down it just just doesn't work like that. Yeah absolutely yeah well there is always going to be an element of the present moment in any situation I suppose yeah I see what you're saying particularly with that James Corden thing that was quite a scandal I think almost that's kind of a conversation that goes back for years just can you own a joke which I would say yeah absolutely I think that you know if you if you wrote something and it's your own unique perspective and you got there first crucially then it's very much yours but I yeah I know what you mean like it can be hard sometimes to come up with a unique perspective on every subject but I suppose you know each person is unique and each perspective is unique as long as you stick to what makes you you you're more likely to come with something original and something that echoes with others you know there's this famous therapist called Carl Rogers and and he said that sometimes I find that the stuff that I think is the most personal turns out to be the most universal that's one of the things I really love about stand-up is sometimes I will write a joke about something that's incredible incredibly personal and it's a viewpoint or an event that I think surely this only applies to me surely I'm bonkers you know and and then you tell it on stage and and people laugh and it feels connecting doesn't it it feels like oh this is shared you know this isn't just something that I I alone experience in my in my solitude yeah it came from the outer reaches of your mind but obviously people can relate to it or understand otherwise it wouldn't be laughing yes absolutely yeah I think it's you know it's got a real power to make people feel less alone stand-up certainly well your two shows this week um Adili's bar in Oma and Benigan that's on Thursday night and Benigan's bar in Derry and this time a show in Derry where there will be a stage people will know that you're performing there in advance unlike a previous show where you landed and I think you ended up standing on a table this is going back a few years am I right yeah yeah did I tell you about that how are you doing with that I have my sources what happened yeah that was tell everybody else about it that was the metro that was the metro they turned off the football to put us on that was one of the worst organized gigs I've ever seen in my life I just tell you what was a good story yeah good story called ball thrown at me oh well there you go so yeah I worked worked out it's your benefit in the long run you've been telling the story since oh yeah yeah yeah it was a fun mess we'll say okay then so Benigan's bar it is on uh Sunday night and uh 27th yeah yeah and uh Thursday night in the Daly's in Oma good luck with the gigs Luke thanks for chatting to us thanks very much so cheers my brother's coming home this Christmas and he hasn't been home for years and we miss him so much and we cannot wait to have him back Christmas is a special time of year where families should be together do you have loved ones who have not been home for Christmas for a number of years have you all missed out on family get-togethers highland radio would like to change that this year for one lucky family simply email us and tell us why we should bring your family home to dunig all this Christmas to home for Christmas at highland radio dot com or visit highland radio dot com and complete the entry form close and date for entries is Monday 28th of November order there's a lot to be said for it not the restrictive always