‘Everything I’ve been doing for the last 18 years has led up to this’ - Shane Todd

“WHAT I normally do is come up with the name of a show, we put it on sale and then I write it,” confesses comedian Shane Todd of his upcoming tour, Full House.

“Sometimes it doesn’t even correlate in any way to the title of the gig – like last year’s show was called Mummy but I ended up doing quite a lot of material about my dad.

“But this time the two are actually related,” he assures me.

Kicking off his career almost two decades ago, Full House will be the comic’s eleventh solo show to date – a far cry from his first gig in the Green Room of The Black Box in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter.

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“It was such an out of the ordinary experience to get up and do stand up for the first time,” he recalls.

“I didn’t come from an amateur dramatic or youth theatre background – I didn’t even do the school plays, so it was a huge deal for me.

“Although I remember it being sort of bittersweet because I got laughs but they were probably at the expense of how nervous and young looking I was.”

No longer a nervous baby-faced teen, Shane has gone on to become somewhat of a comedic Jack-of-all-trades.

From co-hosting Rave Lockdowns on Radio Ulster with comedy partner Dave Elliott and presenting his show Previously with Shane Todd on BBC to conducting viral-worthy interviews with NI icons including Jamie Dornan, Derry Girls stars Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, and singer Janet Devlin on his popular podcast Tea With Me, it’s safe to say he is experiencing something of a Shane reaction…

“The years are all so blurry in terms of what year I did what,” he laughs.

“I think when you work a job like this and not a 9-5, your concept of time is so off, especially because every week is so different - but that’s what I love about it.”

Now a well-established fixture on the comedy circuit with over half a million followers across his social media platforms and a burgeoning fandom in both Northern Ireland and beyond, the Holywood stand-up is ready to return to the stage.

“I think it sort of coincides with my age as well,” he explains.

“I know myself better as a person and I think when you have more life experience you become a better stand-up.

“Because I have on-stage experience and life experience now, having had kids and things like that, I think I have a bit more to talk about.”

Centring around his experience growing up in a massive family and now having a “fuller house” himself, the show has given Shane a rare opportunity to reflect.

“Full House is essentially me looking back,” he says.

“When I was younger, I spent so much time, especially at the weekends, at my granny’s house which was a very small, terraced house in White City Estate in Holywood and it’s about the characters that would’ve come in and out of that house.”

Although Shane is well known for his character work, creating the likes of North Down posh boy Mike McGoldrick and local football hero Keith Cruise, both of whom enjoyed a cult online following, it’s not something he is planning to revive in his upcoming shows.

“It feels like a lifetime ago since I was doing Mike McGoldrick,” he admits.

“I loved doing the character stuff and people sometimes ask if I fell out of love with it but it’s really just a time issue, I keep meaning to bring him back and do that sort of thing again and I will at some point, but stand-up is a separate thing and is the main thing in my life at the minute.”

Shane will be taking his show on the road in September, making stops across Ireland, Britain and Europe but most notably this will his first time playing Belfast’s SSE Arena in its entirety.

“I haven’t played the full arena solo before,” he says.

“We’ve done the live podcast in there and I’ve got to open for some big comedians in there as well.

“That’s almost like a free hit when you’re opening for bigger acts because it’s their night, the pressure is on them but you get to do 10 minutes at the start and get a feel for the venue.”

Amongst these big names of comedy is American megastar Kevin Hart, who Shane opened for during the Irish leg of his Reality Check tour in 2022.

“It was surreal, sometimes I think back to it and question if it really happened,” he laughs.

“The best thing about it was watching him every night and seeing the subtle changes he made to the show. He was very meticulous with how he approached each gig.

“When I first started opening for him, I thought I’d stay and watch the first few shows and then after a while I’d just start going home after I’d done my bit.

“But I stayed for every single one, it was a huge learning experience for me.”

Although seemingly unfazed by the prospect of performing to 11,000 people (the SSE’s maximum capacity), Shane explains that it’s been a long process to get his nerves under control.

“The nerves I used to have would cripple me – I used to shake, I would get a really dry mouth, and I would just be scared.

“Whereas over the years that’s now turned into me knowing how to channel that into something more positive so now when I think about performing, I tend to feel excitement more than anything else.

“I still think you need to have some nerves,” he clarifies.

“But for the most part I feel pretty calm. If I’m backstage, it used to be that I’d pace about for an hour before I went on whereas now, I like to have a more relaxed backstage and have comedian friends there and just chat away until it’s time to go.”

He also believes that workshopping material on stage in front of a comedy savvy crowd has helped him a lot.

“I struggle to concentrate for long periods of time so instead of sitting for a couple of hours writing material I tend to just get out and about and observe everything that’s happening in everyday situations and make notes on my phone.

“Then maybe once a week I’ll devote a day to going through everything and see if I can make stand-up out of it.

“But what I’ve really started to like doing over the last couple of years is almost just writing on stage.

“So, you have these thoughts and then maybe you go and do Lavery’s comedy club and in between the bits of material you’ve already worked out you can try this new stuff and see what people make of it.

“Sometimes going on stage with the idea is better than writing it down.”

Shane will be bringing Full House to the SSE Arena Belfast in November.

“Everything I’ve been doing for the last 18 years has led up to this,” he enthuses.

“I get so many people who have been coming to my solo shows since the Black Box where I also did my first hour-long show to 50 people and I remember we added a show and the buzz off that was unreal – I couldn’t believe we sold 50 tickets. let alone 100. so this in unbelievable.

“There’s nothing bigger I can do here in terms of indoor venues so I think it will be a huge moment.”

Shane Todd will be bringing Full House to the SSE Arena in Belfast on November 9 (sold out) and November 15, ticketmaster.ie