 after 25 years out in Greenin Theatre because Dahi Ramsey is exiting stage left. And 25 years is a long history in one place and he was well he was head-hunted by George McBride 25 years ago. He started up a comedy club in Leroy Cammie and here to figure well if he could names like that to a comedy club. So what could he do for the theatre? Isn't that exactly how it happened Dahi? That's not quite exactly how it happened John. Don't spoil a good story. I'd like to say I'd like to say Patricia's name is Patricia as well. Oh sorry sorry. Not sure. Yeah no well that's yeah. I mean she did point me towards the job application in the paper so I did have to apply and be interviewed with everyone else. But she saw the potential. She saw the potential yeah yeah yeah. And like any good scout or manager would yeah he could do a job for us. Exactly. I think when I saw it I mean for me the attraction was that it was in Leroy Cammie. You know had it been anywhere else because I was working with the health board I was working in a unit for teenagers taken into care so it was a very different area and I was doing the gigs on the side the comedy club the music gigs. Which is where your heart was. Which yeah yeah. So would you left a good job to go to another good job. Exactly exactly but only because it was in Leroy Cammie had it been anywhere else. In my head I was like well I can sell things to people in Leroy Cammie I understand Leroy Cammie you know I'm from Leroy Cammie I understand it so I could do that job. I don't think it had been anywhere else I'd have looked at it in the same way. Right but then for somebody who had started up a comedy club and was you know getting comedians to come to it etc etc it was kind of the logical extension of that to going to the theatre and to care some of the bookings and get a book in acts and stuff and find out what was suitable and see what would work. Yeah absolutely absolutely fully enough with that comedy club the one after that didn't go as well. All right. Right it's funny she turned up to the one where Kevin Maclear was sold out which was great and then the next one had 12 people turn up and it was a double headliner of Dara O'Brien and Deirdre O'King and 12 people. We actually did basically what happened was Dara said giving their money back pay Deirdre her fee because she was just on 100 quid or whatever supports you know and he said you know what I'll take them in the bar and give them a drink and he took them in the bar and chatted to them. And you see Dara O'Brien now in all the TV appearances and you know the big venues and all the rest of you and you think wow he's you know creaming it forget about the nights when there was a handful of people yeah and you know and he did. Yeah and his his next gig for us was in the foyer of the theater so we tried doing comedy nights in there small comedy nights there and then he played half the auditorium the next so people build up but I love comedy you know I love music so both of those as you say it makes sense. But mention there about 12 people yeah I mean you just don't know when you're booking an act you just don't know what's going to go down and especially with comedians because you you want to book them I suppose in a way on the way up because then when they get very big they're off to the three arena or even the many on four more whatever and just get get too big for how many is it three 383 383 now 345 originally they extended right and so as a result you're you're kind of looking for talent up and coming talent all the time that was the idea and I mean I remember Desbyship saying to me I will always come back here no matter what because you booked me when I was small you believed in me you saw me you know I'll always come back here and that's what you're hoping to get that relationship which you know which makes them the latest big comedy booking just a little bit strange and I've never put it in what's his name? John Bishop. John Bishop you managed to secure John Bishop not just for one night but for two nights how did you miss wearing that one but what happens there you're involved there yeah it's the relationships you build up over time right so Bren Berry who runs Verker Street main mandate and promotions absolutely lovely fella from the band Revelino if you remember Revelino back in the day and Bren has a couple of good singles at the moment that he's doing but Bren we did the comedy club in 2006 together the letter Kenny comedy club which a lot of people won't remember and what Bren did with that was went on to turn into the Ivy Gardens the comedy club in the Ivy Gardens every year and so Bren he also is Tommy Tuernan's agent and we've worked with him a lot Bren really trusts and likes as we get on connections yeah so um John Bishop said he was coming he's going to do the Wild Atlantic Way ending up in Cork which is in Aiken Promotions gig the marquee in Cork and he said to Bren I'm going to start in Donegal do on a motorbike by the way um do the Wild Atlantic Way maybe you'll get me a gig in Galway as well and Bren basically said if you're starting in Donegal you're playing in and greening brilliant so that's what he did he rang me and I couldn't believe when he went for the second gig as well because I just thought this is a one-off but I presume he wants to stay in Donegal and do some things yeah so it's great that he you know gets a couple of gigs and you know pays for stay here plus yeah the marquee in Cork where he finishes how many does that hold well I think yeah I don't know but I'd say it's about four or five thousand you know and you're getting him in a venue with the 383 which pretty much broke the booking system it pretty much did well and I've never seen anything like it gone three minutes the first gig and the screen froze on us yeah you know okay not every gig is like that and some you take a chance on and you end up with a handful of people and others then you know it's great it performed far better than expected and notables along the way good bad or indifferent what stands out for you what stands out for me I suppose is I suppose for me a lot of the ones I booked so Desmond Decker the Jamaican ska singer the Israelites the song that's been used for a million adverts at this stage hasn't it so we had a what sort of a night was that I was amazing basically it's all done uh sold out um it was quite it was early 2000s and he had a kind of um big up kind of man so he had a guy come out because he's quite and quite unassuming fell himself to warm up the crowd to sort of you know tell everybody you know just come on get going get going well he was there the whole time doing the mic you know and basically after the first song he just went what are you all doing sitting down get up and the whole place just got up and danced and I'd say it's the only night in the theater where everybody was dancing right but it's reggae and it's a lively reggae a lot of yeah exactly exactly but I had my little three-year-old then emery my three-year-old child then emery's now 24 um so you know dancing beside me and that was love memories that's lovely and that's you know it's the memories made isn't it you know it's not just Desmond Decker there's been so many great acts in the theater and you'd have seen them all over 25 years and John Prine I mean um you know the great John Prine um and I was delighted mesmerizing yeah yeah yeah incredible performer and lovely guy would you yeah David Gray David Gray Dave Gray what a big artist and the thing is when you see those big artists and Jack D's another one I think of in that vein in terms of when you see them even though you're not a huge like I wouldn't be a huge fan of David Gray's music before or Jack D's comedy you know he's a huge artist so I'm taking up you know um but then you see them on a stage and you see David Gray and you're like oh I get it I get why they're so big they are so so good you know whether it's your type of thing yeah just so professional and they just got it like yeah when they come out there under the legs just they're switched on what we used to call the X factor before the tv show all right yeah they've got it tv show then you know but then I remember seeing um first time I saw Alton on the stage and you know Meridini Weenie who also has got it you know Meridini Weenie walks on stage and I'm like oh she's a star you know it was almost genuinely it almost looked like there was a glow around her yeah you know and you're dealing with these people and you're chatting to them behind the scenes and it's all you know matter of fact in the the nuts and bolts and the smaller things but then you're you're with the rest of the audience and you're stood up the back in the dark yeah and the lights are on on their own stage and then you either they either have it and or or they don't yeah maybe somewhere in between but the and with generalizing would it with the bigger the artists the more popular that they are or just the bigger that they are and the easier they are to deal with normally normally 99% of the time the bigger they are the more relaxed they are and the more they enjoy just a natural chat okay you know you can sit and just chat with them um no airs and graces no airs and graces absolutely none right you know and well you in that interview there at the weekend with the Donegal news you know surprisingly you name names because when there's an interview of somebody who's in the industry they'll always go yeah well we've had a few experiences the other way but I'd rather not you know names well you're out of the industry now so you don't care yeah yeah that's Paddy Wall she draws it out of you you know what I mean good uh yeah so I know I come back to Michelle Shocked you got a bit of an eye opener did you well it's interesting that with Michelle Shocked that like um I think she'd had a bad day in fairness to her she'd had a very bad day somehow she had driven from Galway to Letter Kenny via Ennis Killen oh right you know we put you in bad gym we've all been sent the wrong way by Google Maps so you know that would put you in bad humor but yeah I just wasn't impressed with how she um interacted with the staff off stage oh off stage oh she was lovely to the odd I mean that was it infuriated me that she went on stage and was like doing the whole we're in this together and you know we're all the workers unite kind of thing and you're thinking that's not how you were talking to the workers a short while ago you know um but interestingly she pretty much got herself cancelled a few months later in the state so I wasn't surprised to see that happen and either karma you know yeah yeah it you know um comedy is close to your heart and you know more than Darrow brain you would have you know a lot of comedians who are just playing to a handful or starting off or starting in the foyer and work their way up and I'm chatting about big names Bill Bailey Tommy Turing and you know Dylan Moran yeah and but it's I suppose you you'd have then watched on and seen them progressing but it's great then when you get them back to the theater oh absolutely absolutely and someone like Des Bishop or Neil Delamere who I'm very fond of lovely guy Neil absolute gent you know um Neil like I've seen him build up over the years to where he's selling two houses for us now a year I'll have to stop saying us where he's selling two houses a year for the theater from two nights in the words yeah um two houses yes that's sorry industry talk industry speak so um he's probably built himself over or he bought himself a very nice house I know he has in Dublin so um but yeah starting off with you know I think he probably did the foyer as well um so probably starting off to seven sixty seventy you know next time there's a hundred next time is 200 but he's a I mean he's a real pro Neil I mean if anybody is interested in how to build a career in the Irish entertainment business Neil would be a fine fine study he's a good example you know he I remember him saying to me you got to get in the car you got to get in the car you've got to drive the country you've got to do the gigs okay you know um we're chatting here but you know um comedians and singers and very well known names but local productions and in a way in a way it's almost the the red and butter of the theater and I'm thinking about uh you know runs of like for a full week and one has just finished with the Adams family yeah excellent it was as well it was indeed local productions like over the 25 years local productions have come on in leaps and bounds and the the one just finished in that's almost semi-professional or at least that's the impression I got I mean I don't like the delineation between that kind of amateur professional anyway I think local is a very good term for what they do here you know there's a lot of people um for example the uh music and drama group had the alternative recently and I mean it was an incredible production and then you've got Ireland McGowan who is a professional actor in that as well you know so and I have to say he was playing beside the lane glass being the lane was well able for him do you know what I mean absolutely you know she was able to get up yeah yeah exactly and the talent's there you know there's no lack of talent at all and what the difference was I guess in the early days was the production standards because if you're doing it in the community hall or the school hall you know you haven't got all the equipment you haven't got the availability and that stuff's moved on so much but they've really pulled that up now okay you know that's where the theater came in that's why the theater made such good sense um all those years ago and it give a professional veneer to what local productions we're trying to do amongst other things yep and I have to say you know to give a nod to my old colleague Niall Krani the technical manager Niall you know he's so good keeps up to he keeps up to date but he's so giving really he really he's you know with his advice with his knowledge he'll share everything he'll help people out he's so helpful you know and I think a lot of ingredients reputation is based on Niall and the technical team as well and and the other people I worked with you know yeah it's that reputation of being helpful I've just heard donal again praising them you know and I suppose it's only behind the scenes and something like that is pulled heather and tether when there's a local production can you do this and what about that oh absolutely and to be accommodating it's it's no small task I think because Niall has that trust of people because the trust is there between the groups and the technical team in the theater so he'll start early with them and talk to them about what what is possible and as I say for the alternative Niall was actually on stage operating for them as well you know um there you go it was a great production I'm yeah I have a funny film we'll be seeing it again and it'll be it'll be packed out but that's another story yeah your story continues just not at the theater so where yeah where are you off to now I'm going to be working for the county council um I'll be part of the culture team um I shall be the creative communities engagement officer they'll never get that on your door no I think it's already been shortened a cco I've been told so creative communities officer sounds even more impressed yeah um so it's a creative Ireland funded post um creative Ireland um basically the mission statement it's a government initiative but basically the mission statement is that every person in Ireland should have access to an availability of creativity in their everyday life which I think for a government say that for a country to say that is incredible and I think it shows that love the you know the graph we have for what how do you help it happen well there's money you know creative Ireland has money this funding it always helps yes you know so there's already that's already been happening the creative Ireland so crin and oak for example the national day for youth that's a centerpiece of you know that'll be my responsibility um when I get there um but other things I know you had Joe on talking about thatch and didn't you yeah so that creative Ireland have been uh funding towards that so it's quite a broad what creative Ireland do is quite broad they're you know they have the creative schools as well okay so there's a very broad thing there I mean the creative communities um as I say there'll be some funding and hopefully just getting people doing something around the county fair but yeah you're going to be getting the car that's the exciting thing for me that's a huge attraction for me we live in the most beautiful county I love it you know the last number of years my dad's a big walker we've been out and about doing the walk and I love it um and that's you know I've been sitting in one building for 25 years no more how long are you sitting here Joe I long time too so you'd no choice you were you know you were based here and yeah you didn't have to or you couldn't really move from here yeah but now this job entails you're going to be in all corners yeah and that's a huge attraction for me I love the idea I love getting out she you know yourself I love chatting to people you know absolutely so I'm looking forward to that well it's uh it's a new chapter in your in your working life and uh not that you're uh afraid of new challenges yes can I get the impression you're willing to try anything and uh the best the best look with it thank you Joe we've had a lot of you know kind of dealings behind the scenes yeah and you know you've been up here at Highland any number of times as well and on here and so on and no doubt that you'll be a success in your new role and I don't know who had head hunted you there whether you just saw the application and applied yourself but um Patricia can't take credit for this one no no this is this is very much me I think again much like a when I was looking at the job in the theatre you know I saw the job description thought oh that's me you know it just sounded like me obviously I come from a community social work background originally it is and you add that to the arts it's a great place to start a great starting point yeah that's for me yeah exactly yeah I mean it was a lot of work to get it it's amazing how much it goes into a job application these days particularly for a state body you really have to dot the i's cross the t's and tick the boxes and all that kind of thing but I'm sure you'll be no stranger to ingrain in no no I do you know what I'm just because you're not working there I'm planning to go back sat the night uh Michael Murphy who's one of the very best performers in Ireland will be um doing the third in his trilogy um it's oh you do you know what I should remember the name but kitsy rainy basically there's a longer title there but it's an absolutely beautiful show I saw it in the hawks well so I did the occasionally get out and about um I saw it in the hawks well it's absolutely beautiful theatre show and I would recommend everyone go to it so I'll be back on sat the night all right I'll we'll see you around no doubt thanks die thank you job and the best luck cheers