Punchlines Not Punches – Tommy McCarthy Starts Career in Comedy
It will be punchlines rather than punches for Tommy McCarthy [18(9)-4(2)] over the next week or so.
The former European cruiserweight champion will support well-known comedian Paddy McDonnell on a Feile Comedy Night at the Devenish Complex on August 4.
The Oliver Plunketts graduate got his shot at the festival after impressing McDonnell with a routine comedy night in Coalisland last month.
‘The Mack Attack’ is warming up for the Féile gig at open-mic night in Magherafelt tonight and the first ever Feile Fight Night bill topper plans to have the audience in stitches rather than dishing out cuts that need stitches when he performs at the festival again.
“I was on Sean Hegarty and Tyrone McKenna’s ‘One Two One Two’ podcast recently and we got chatting about what I wanted to do outside of boxing. I said I didn’t want my life to be defined by boxing, and that I wanted to do some different things like acting or even stand-up comedy.
“Boxing is obviously my primary thing, but I want to try other things. Sean asked if I was serious about the stand-up and said he could get me a slot on an open-mic night.
“I just said ‘100 percent’ and was all for it. Sean then texted me about a comedy night in Coalisland, at a GAA club there.
“He asked if I wanted to do five minutes there, and I said yes. There was me, Paddy McDonnell who was headlining, Dave Elliott and Fintan Harvey.
“Dave and Fintan did their bit and I was on before Paddy. All the comics were really supportive and gave me wee tips.
“But they told me any comedian usually does their first gig in front of about six people. And here I was about to perform in front of about 120 people. They said it was going into the deep end, but it went brilliant. Everyone was in stitches,” he told Belfast Live explaining how his new comedy career started.
It seems the World Youth medal winner was impressive as he has been invited back to do more shows and will be entertaining fans in a different way over the coming weeks at the very least.
