Tommy McCarthy won’t let Funny Business get in the way of World title dream
Tommy McCarthy [19(10)-4(2)] is happy to keep up the funny business while he pursues the ultimate dream of becoming a world champion.
McCarthy fell into comedy over the summer and has shown as much flair for making people laugh as he has for beating fighters up.
He hasn’t quite swapped punching for punchlines but is happy to deliver both at the right times moving forward.
The 31-year-old told Irish-boxing.com that becoming world champion is still the number 1 dream but there remains room in his life for stand up.
“Boxing is my ultimate dream, my lifelong pursuit of being a champion but I don’t put myself in a box,” he said.
“Anything going I want to try it be it acting, music and even stand up,” he adds before explaining how he found himself on a few high-profile comedy bills post a podcast invite from Paddy McDonnell.
“I did it and it went brilliant, Paddy McDonnell was headlining the show and he said ‘Tommy that was brilliant, do you want to do the Fiele?’. He put me on the Fiele show and has taken me under his win, putting me on shows. It’s going well. I did five minutes the first time, I’m up to 10 minutes now. I’ve done Belfast Feile, Derry Feile.”
The fighter, who provides chief support to Eric Donovan and his EU title fight this coming Saturday, has enjoyed his time on stage and may just explore other performing arts when he is retired.
“I’m enjoying it. It’s just another outlet.”
“I never grew up wanting to be a stand-up comic. I always watched it and I’m a big fan but I saw myself at a standup. I was the best man for my cousin Stephen and I did the speech and everyone was in stitches and a year later I was the best man for Tyrone McKenna and everyone was in stitches and I was like ‘you know what I reckon I could do this’. I was unsure but now I’ve tried it and I got a taste for it I feel like I could do well in it. It could lead to acting or other things, so I’m just keeping an open mind.”
