Tommy Tiernan: To Tell You The Truth

CountyHurler

I'm not sure if there's another thread for this... But I've just seen it for the first time... Jaysus it's shocking bad... How did he ever think it was possible to improvise a whole comedy show...

Every second word is a curse, there are no laughs, and the show seems like the sort of breakdown you have in front of your therapist..

gerbilgranny

I don't know what to make of it at all - but it's not comfortable viewing, certainly.

To be fair I've not been glued to the TV for all of it, so maybe I've missed some obvious point. But the clip in Germany - ouch!

Cosmo2013

Its embarrassing.... dying on his feet, every show.

SIX PACK

Anyone watching this on Rte1 He's touring Europe doing stand up comedy. His jokes aren't great if any at all

Lady Chatterton

I'm a big Tommy Tiernan fan but this is really awful

Cosmo2013

He's obviously back drinking heavily. He's not with it at all. Why doesn't he rehearse something.. don't get it

RoryMac

I think the lady worried he was having a break-down might have hit the nail on the head

Vivienne23

Just turned it off , over to damo and Ivor !!

Went to see tommy about 3 years ago he was shocking bad , I know the man has problems but why continue if it makes him so unhappy , the cursing is beyond a joke , time to hang up the boots I reckon

First_October

It must have been really embarrassing for him. It's been a long time since I've heard any good material from him. It's like he's televising a mid-life crisis. He comes across as depressed and very pretentious off-stage.

dr.bollocko

It was so bad. I kinda assumed that that's why it was compelling to some people. To watch him kinda having a break down.

Strongbow10

Cosmo2013 wrote: »

He's obviously back drinking heavily. He's not with it at all. Why doesn't he rehearse something.. don't get it

Is that not the point of it all? To see if the concept can carry across the continent

Tiernan has a real insecurity when it comes to the UK market, he's like the kid who was never invited to the party and has moulded himself into someone who thinks he's all the cooler for it, but would secretly love to be embraced and invited.

He's like the U2 of comedy in Ireland, it's comedy for people who don't really like comedy.

Cosmo2013

He's had no good material for about 10 years. Always thought he was much more interesting andfunny in interview on radio the times I heard him.

Lady Chatterton

First_October wrote: »

It must have been really embarrassing for him. It's been a long time since I've heard any good material from him. It's like he's televising a mid-life crisis. He comes across as depressed and very pretentious off-stage.

I've met Tommy a few times and yes he suffers from depression, that is on the record. I don't think he is in anyway pretentious, he is very down to earth in fact.

Cosmo2013

Strongbow10 wrote: »

Is that not the point of it all? To see if the concept can carry across the continent

Yeah, that is the point but he's dying so badly that you'd think he 'pretend'. Like this is appalling

Rowley Birkin QC

I hope it picks up. Not for my entertainment but just so I can see him happier.

Sneaking suspicion that it has been edited in such a way to get the low points out of the way first and it'll pick up at the end. I hope.

sunbabe08

Tommy has lost his mojo a few years ago, clearly still searching for it. Its possible he passed it on to one of his many children

Kauto0709

MrsD007 wrote: »

I've met Tommy a few times and yes he suffers from depression, that is on the record. I don't think he is in anyway pretentious, he is very down to earth in fact.

I second this. Lovely man.

Howjoe1

I was only just getting over Twink. This is a bit unsettling

gerbilgranny

His chat with Gay Byrne on 'The Meaning of Life' was possibly my favourite episode of that series. I didn't think I'd be keen on him at all - but he was a revelation. I wonder is comedy a bit too trivial for him, now? I mean, does he sort of despise himself for 'just' being a stand-up comic?

yipeeeee

In all fairness his new stuff is much better than a few years ago.

This show was a stupid idea.

castor 1

It's fascinating viewing.
I don't think he would get away with it if he wasn't as well known.

CountyHurler

If he wants to keep with the Dylan analogy, I havent seen a Bob Dylan gig where he didnt bother with his catalog of songs and just made up new songs as he went along...

It's just not possible to do what he's trying to do...

Cosmo2013

Besides, people Have paid to listen to it. He's taking money Off people, for what like?!

Vivienne23

To have this shown before his tour of Ireland is bad timing for him ,

his earlier stuff was fantastic though have to give him that got me through many a bad hangover day in Sydney

Harry Angstrom

I like it

dan1895

Very awkward viewing. Had to turn it off. Felt very sad for him as it looks like he's going through a breakdown or something.

Tilikum

Never found him funny. All he does is shout & roar. Using bad language to get a laugh.

He's awful.

Lady Chatterton

I remember meeting Tommy when I was having a very bad day (my newborn baby was in the special care baby unit of Galway University Hospital) and he was visiting someone in the hospital. I'll never forget his kind words, he really gave me a great lift

yipeeeee

Tilikum wrote: »

Never found him funny. All he does is shout & roar. Using bad language to get a laugh.

He's awful.

Not true.

SIX PACK

Well I wouldn't go that far. But think he's just putting in those shows for the Money.
Stand up comedy doesn't get easier as your at it a few years. Especially if you can't come up with new material

Cosmo2013

yipeeeee wrote: »

Not true.

Kind of of is true though. What's with all this shouting?!

yipeeeee

Cosmo2013 wrote: »

Kind of of is true though. What's with all this shouting?!

I suggest you watch cracked and loose.

Pure genius.

This show is just awkward and really doesn't show what he is made of.

Strongbow10

gerbilgranny wrote: »

His chat with Gay Byrne on 'The Meaning of Life' was possibly my favourite episode of that series. I didn't think I'd be keen on him at all - but he was a revelation. I wonder is comedy a bit too trivial for him, now? I mean, does he sort of despise himself for 'just' being a stand-up comic?

He is a real gentleman, but does strike me as a fella who is very unfulfilled with selling out vicar street 10 nights in a row.

He is very bohemian in his ways, but there is an element of the pseudo intellectual about him, he gets very deep in his story telling and descriptions and goes over a lot of people's heads, not because it's beyond the normal mans comprehension, but more so because he doesn't articulate his thoughts as well as he could, so sounds like gibberish from time to time

L'Enfer du Nord

He really reminds of a person in the work place who has decided they just don't give a dam anymore. He said at one point that a bunch of Irish guys in the audience were treating him like a substitute teacher. He reminded me of a teacher alright, but more like one who is replaced by a substitute half way through term after cracking up because he can't face teaching students how to spew out three pages on the failures of the French 3rd Republic for the 20th time in 20 years.

Aubrey loves Joe

Some of his DVD are decent but that was awful muck. Hard to watch.

castor 1

L'Enfer du Nord wrote: »

He really reminds of a person in the work place who has decided they just don't give a dam anymore. He said at one point that a bunch of Irish guys in the audience were treating him like a substitute teacher. He reminded me of a teacher alright, but more like one who is replaced by a substitute half way through term after cracking up because he can't face teaching students how to spew out three pages on the failures of the French 3rd Republic for the 20th time in 20 years.

Don't we all get a bit like that after many years working. It can be hard to maintain the same enthusiasm all the time.

What is laudable is that he would persist with something so difficult for 11 sessions without any 'safety net'.

RichardoKhan

So what is the thing about Vegas comedy clubs after all?

FouxDaFaFa

I missed the first 10 minutes or so of it but I liked it overall.

I liked that it wasn't constant laughs because comedy isn't always like that. I mean, undertaking a tour of improvised stand-up shows? It's a bit mad and you're bound to be plagued by self-doubt if you do it and you'll probably get too into your own head analysing the shows but that's how a lot of standups work.

I don't think he knocked the majority of the gigs out of the park but it's an interesting concept. We are too used to extremely rehearsed, scripted comedy that anything other than that makes us uncomfortable.

It was nicely shot, stayed just on the edge of being too pretentious and gave a little insight into something interesting while being harmless.

Compared to some of the horrifying dross RTE has come up with for the new schedule, it was Citizen Kane.

smellmepower

Like an unfunny, inarticulate Stewart Lee.

Tommy may be the nicest guy in the world or whatever (never met him), but he has some neck charging people money for whatever it was that he was doing on stage in that documentary. Shocking stuff.

He should stick to his vulgar shouty routines, as he's obviously not clever enough to pull off this 'deep' philosophical persona he's aiming for.

Angel Knightess

I think it was really brave what he did. It may not have completely worked but if you don't at least try, then how are you to know what might work and what doesn't. Besides on a serious note is there anything more annoying than going to see a comedian rehash all the jokes he's told before on tv and such.

I wouldn't laugh out loud at a lot of comedians, only in rare cases but I wouldn't go about slagging them off. Its a tough business appearing in different venues here, there and everywhere and sometimes getting a poor reaction after all that.

Morgans

As a show it was good, and as a concept for a comedy show it was interesting. However I didnt pay the money to go to the show expecting laughs and the idea of doing it is self-indulgent (something he mentioned himself in the programme).

Sure he is only getting rid of the material and asking the audience to like him (again something he mentioned in the programme). It feels like he is trying to work through his depression.

I hope he finds some happiness somewhere, and the improvised stuff is still better than slagging off foreigners/travellers accents on the late late as was the case a few years ago.

Fowler87

gerbilgranny wrote: »

His chat with Gay Byrne on 'The Meaning of Life' was possibly my favourite episode of that series. I didn't think I'd be keen on him at all - but he was a revelation. I wonder is comedy a bit too trivial for him, now? I mean, does he sort of despise himself for 'just' being a stand-up comic?

Exactly just going down a different route in his career. Only Tommy would have the nerve to try what he did in the documentary. Thought it was fascinating myself. Man is a genius

smellmepower

Fowler87 wrote: »

Exactly just going down a different route in his career. Only Tommy would have the nerve to try what he did in the documentary. Thought it was fascinating myself. Man is a genius

Plenty of comics have the nerve to try what Tommy did, only they had the added bonus of their material actually being somewhat funny. To make him out to be some brave new trend setter is rubbish, when his new 'act' mainly consisted of whispering, saying "eh" a lot and then resorting to swearing when the audience started to get fed up watching nothing.

Lucena

I saw him about 15 years ago in Manchester, having seen him a couple of times on the telly before that. The show lasted a good hour and a half, and he was very relaxed and funny.

He did one skit about how Irish people are more relaxed than the English, for example if a fire alarm goes off in a pub/club in England, people will leave, whereas in Ireland someone’ll go “Is that my mobile”. Barely 30 seconds later (as I remember it), the fire alarm did go off, to great cheers and laughter. Someone had to come out on stage to get us to evacuate, as we thought it was part of the show! After about 30 minutes in the cold, we went back in, and Tommy managed to integrate the event into the show, saying how he was shocked that he had to stand outside with the rest of us, and that he didn’t have his own special VIP bunker to protect him.

I’ve seen of couple of his DVDs since then, and unfortunately he just seems to have gone very shouty. It’s possible he’s just run out of ideas, but it’s probably too difficult to change careers now, so he’s stuck doing comedy.

Sam Kade

I can't understand how anyone finds him funny

Tabnabs

He fairly lashed the German's out of it from the stage in Berlin. I'd say they were wondering what branch of comedy that rant belonged to?

As said before, it could have been editing, but he looked to be dying a fairly empty and incoherent death on stage most nights, mixed in with episodes of hilarity/insanity. When he jumped off the stage and started opening the doors to the foyer to get people to the bar because he had no real material, his manager should have book a ticket home for poor Tommy at that point.

The Vegas story that he couldn't get out, was it that the last act of the night is so poor that people just get up and leave rather than stay for the "comedy"? It seemed to be what he was implying.

Skid X

Fowler87 wrote: »

Exactly just going down a different route in his career. Only Tommy would have the nerve to try what he did in the documentary. Thought it was fascinating myself. Man is a genius

It's not unheard of for performers to change direction. But they shouldn't expect the public to pay full price to humour a man who appears to have no intention of delivering anything which could be vaguely described as entertaining.

When comedians are trying out new material, they do unannounced unpaid low key performances at Comedy Clubs. Tommy Tiernan should have tried something similar. He can be a very good comedian at times but this was pure self indulgence.

Kirby

He's a poor comedian. Stories about how nice he is are great, but it doesn't matter how nice he is if he isn't funny. And he's not. Shouting and cursing isn't comedy.

ShagNastii

It was painful watching alright. He has been gigging for over 25 years I’m sure it didn’t take him a tour to realise he can’t improv a show. Ross Noble, Dara O Briain and countless others can but that is just their way they do shows comedy. There was a reason Tommy seldom went on the panel, he is not an off the cusp guy. He used to be a Milton Jones-esqure joking fool then he morphed into a shouty poetic storyteller which when he was on form produced some hilarious stuff. I have tickets for one of his upcoming shows and I pray he has written a show. If not, it will be as flat as a pancake and the crowd will turn sour ASAP. None of this whispering b*llocks or shouting and blinding for the sack of it- a proper well written show.

He was drinking in the show. I know he wasn’t drinking for an age. Does anyone know if he has stated he is an alcoholic?

WindowWaver

Just ask yourself when was the last time you went to an actual comedy gig. Ireland has heaps more talent than him. the show was ok, not amazing but he was a great comedian. now he needs to shout to be funny.

Cartman78

Lasted about 25 mins of this last night....hard to classify it as "bad" or "good" imho but I just simply wasn't in the mood for it.

Not really sure what the point of this programme was tbh....came across as a wannabe existentialist art project which is all good and well but doesn't necessarily make for quality prime time viewing on a Monday night

There was one great tracking shot through the audience at one gig (possibly Helsinki).....a few people were staring blankly, one guy was asleep and everyone else was laughing nervously, desperately waiting for a punchline of some sort but all they got was TT whispering "Sure, fcuucccccccccck it...it's mad isn't it"