“The radio and TV are great, but for someone who works in comedy, it’s the reaction from the crowd that really gets you going. That’s where you get a real buzz from.” Mario Rosenstock is one of the hardest working men in the Irish comedy circuit, with a TV show, daily sketches on the Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show on Today FM, and his live tours selling out around the country. The world famous comic impersonator is bringing his new show Gift Grub Live 3 to the Radisson Blu Hotel, Athlone on Friday October 17 and it’s a show that you don’t want to miss.
Having already completed one tour of the county in the spring, this tour will not be the same as the last one, as Mario explains. “It’s constantly evolving, that’s the nature of comedy, it goes with the crowd and you never know where it’s going to take you. This time we’ve got lots of new bits, with Bono and The Edge, which is quite topical at the minute, and the people of Mayo are going to enjoy the Louis Walsh eight-minute boyband sketch, which could see the direction of the show taking off any way depending on how the crowd take it.”
It is hard to believe that it is more than 15 years since Rosenstock and his comedic talents first burst on to the scene on the Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show on Today FM. “Yeah it’s flown by, when we started off we had no idea what was going to happen. It first started with a three month contract with Today FM, then on to a six-month, and then a year, it kept rolling on. It’s funny, because back then there was no social media and [the] texting in was only in its infancy so getting and gauging the reaction wasn’t the easiest thing to do. What we had was a very primitive form of social media, which was more or less people coming up to Ian Dempsey in Tesco and going ‘I love that Bertie fella on the radio’. Ian had a recognisable face from the TV and people came up to him and we’ve rolled from there.”
Having to come up with topical sketches for a morning breakfast show can be a daunting task, Mario explained. “The last place you want to be is in a production meeting looking around and going ‘So what do we have’ and have nothing. I jot down ideas and little notes during the day for ideas and once you can see yourself that there’s a sketch in there, you know you can work from it. Like we’d a sketch this week, with Love/Hate coming back and you know how Fran and Nidge would be always using their phones in setting up a big score. We tied it in with their phones not working and a deal getting messed up because of the iPhone launch and the U2 album getting downloaded to it automatically and the two boys going to Dalkey to get Bono for it.”
If you are looking for a rollicking good night out with plenty of familiar voices to entertain you, then do not miss Gift Grub Live 3 with Mario Rosenstock in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Athlone on Friday October 17. Doors open at 7pm with the show at 8pm, tickets are €35 and are available in person from the Radisson Blu and Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.
