Pat’s Where It’s At: Patrick Kielty heads to the Brighton Comedy Festival

Patrick Kielty heads to the Brighton Comedy Festival next month, with his first live show in years – Help!

Patrick Kielty has been off making highly successful TV and radio shows for
several years. But now he is returning to his first love: stand-up comedy. And he just can’t wait!
Patrick, who has been a TV star since his breakthrough alongside Ben Elton and Jo Brand on Comic Relief’s St Patrick’s Day Stand Up Special in 1995, is simply delighted to be going back to his stand-up roots this autumn with a nationwide tour of his brand-new show, Help!.
But he emphasises that he will be unable to do this alone – he will require your help. Patrick is trying to create a modern rulebook for love, life and happiness. So he urges us to bring our lovers, our advice and a crayon – and he guarantees to do the rest.
The star of BBC 1’s Live At The Apollo, Dave’s One Night Stand and host of Radio 2’s BBC New Comedy Award, Patrick is a coruscating live presence. A stand-up gifted with “funny bones”, he merely has to walk on stage to get audience laughing. Phenomenally quick on his feet, he also enjoys a fantastic rapport with his legions of loyal fans. All in all, it’s an absolute joy to welcome Patrick back to the live arena.
A rare example of a stand-up who is just as charming and funny off stage as on it, Patrick is chatting in the run-up to the tour. The comedian, who got married nearly three years ago to Cat Deeley, his co-presenter on the very popular BBC1 talent show Fame Academy, can’t contain his excitement about hitting the road once again.

“I’m so thrilled to be touring again,” beams Patrick, who fronted the Channel 4 comedy series Last Chance Lottery and six seasons of his hit BBC1 chat show Patrick Kielty Almost Live. “There’s such a tremendous honesty to stand-up. If you look at other areas of performance, a certain etiquette exists. If someone sings a song, for instance, etiquette dictates that you give them a polite ‘cricket match’ round of applause – even if they’re off key.
“But the thing about comedy is that you can’t fake laughter. Even if someone loves you, if the show isn’t that funny, then the best they can do is fix a grin and think, ‘Oh my God, someone please laugh!’ There’s an honesty in stand-up that isn’t in other forms. That means that when you do get a laugh, it gives you a real buzz!”
Honesty is the hallmark of this show, Patrick explains. The comic, who is a regular voice on BBC Radio 2 and The One Show goes on to underline the importance of being straight with his audience.
He says that, “As a stand-up, you have to be honest enough to talk about what’s going on in your life. You can’t fake it. There is only a quarter of an inch of microphone cable between you and the audience, and you’re saying to them, ‘I think this is funny – what do you think?’”
Patrick continues that, “I hope audiences leave the show saying, ‘I’ve seen him on TV and heard him on the radio, but I didn’t realise that in his stand-up he lays it all out there.’ It’s very important as a stand-up to have something to say.
“Audiences don’t want to just hear gags. They want to know that what you’re talking about is something you’ve actually experienced that they can relate to. I’m saying, ‘This is my personal, honest story,’ and the audience like that.”
In the past, Patrick has been known for more topical material, so Help! represents something of a new direction for him. The comedian, who discusses such personal areas as his childhood and his marriage in the show, reflects that, “It does feel like a departure. A lot of the stuff I have done previously has had a political edge. When I started out as a stand-up in Belfast, my brain became very politically tuned in. A lot of my material was about what was going on in the world.

“Now the audience reaction is, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t realise you’d be as personal as that.’ They have been very pleasantly surprised that I’ve been revealing as much as I have. The response has been so positive that I’m thinking, ‘Why didn’t I do this years ago?’”
Patrick, who studied psychology at Queen’s University, Belfast, proceeds to outline the nature of Help! “I wanted to write a show about being happy. I’m 44. At that age, most performers are going through a mid-life crisis – ‘is this all my life is going to be?’ But the funny thing is, my life has gone the opposite way. Help! is about the opposite of a mid-life crisis. Things are going very well for me, and I’m genuinely the happiest I’ve ever been.”
But there is a lovely twist to this show. Patrick carries on that, “I’m very happy, but because I have the Irish gene, I think, ‘Hang on, this can’t last. Something rubbish has to be around the corner!’
“Essentially, I’ve written a pre-emptive strike, I’m saying, ‘OK, guys, things are going very well, but what could potentially go wrong for me? Is there any advice you can give me?’ That’s the idea for the show. I’d rather do that than be sucked into being someone who pays £300 an hour to lie on a sofa and tell someone my problems!”
Patrick adds that, “In the warm-up shows, the audiences have been giving me very solid advice. In the last fifteen minutes, I hand the show over to them. At the end of every show, we agree on one piece of advice. I write it down and tell them, ‘That’s going in my book.’ It’s a self-help book by deed poll!
“A lot of couples come to the show, and because I’ll have been married three years in September, I get a lot of relationship advice from the audience. Still, at least I don’t have to write to ‘Dear Deidre’ now!”
Patrick Kielty: HELP!, 15 October 2015, Komedia, £18/16, www.brightoncomedyfestival.com