“I come from a long line of storytellers,” says comedian Paddy McDonnell, who is best known for his witty repartee both on stage and online, having become a firm fan favourite on the likes of fellow comedian Shane Todd’s Tea with Me podcast.
“In my family, stories were a big thing growing up - on Thursday nights you would go to my granny’s and everybody would be telling stories and then you’d go to my other granny’s on a Sunday night and do the same thing – so I think that’s where I get it from.”
However, despite his skilful yarn spinning, Paddy’s own story about his transition into comedy isn’t the sort of hilarious anecdote we’ve come to expect from the west Belfast funny man.
“I experienced a vicious assault,” he says.
In 2007 Paddy had his finger bitten off whilst working as a doorman.
“As a result, I went into a depression; I had a joinery company, lost that and didn’t do the door again,” he recalls.
“I’d just been married and we had a nine-month-old son, so it was one of those real bad times.
“I was on top of the world and it just came crashing down and it took four years to get it to court and it the meantime I just lost my way in life to be honest.”
It wasn’t until his wife Andrea, in an attempt to cheer him up, took him along to one of the Pavilion’s infamous open mic comedy nights that Paddy started to find his way again.
“They called me up on stage and I did seven minutes and was hooked for life,” he confesses.
“It was almost like therapy for me – like when you find that hobby you’ve always been looking for, and that’s what comedy is to me.”
Since then, Paddy has played some of the biggest venues in the north including Belfast’s SSE Arena which he sold out two nights on the trot in 2023 - something he hopes to replicate when he returns with his latest show Dagger on Friday night.
“I had done a variation of the show as part of the Belfast comedy festival nine or 10 years ago,” Paddy explains.
“I did it to 60 people at the bottom of McHugh’s and it was really well received but I never did it again after that.
“So I’ve decided to bring it back and do it on a bigger scale.”
Inspired by his infamous stag do, Paddy will relay some of the hilarious highlights from his outrageous week-long sesh in Salou whilst also explaining how and why he got his famous nickname ‘Paddy the Dagger’.
“I have a tattoo on a certain area of my body… I don’t know how much of this you can write about,” he laughs.
“I got it done on my stag do so the whole show is essentially me telling that story and how I got my nickname.
“It felt like it was the right time to get the Dagger story out there.
“Last year I did a show called Stories, before that it I did one called On the Tools and On the Tools 2 so it’s almost like there’s been a path up to it.”
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However, he claims he’s not the first person to take creative inspiration from his escapades in España.
“The Hangover movie came out two or three years after my stag do and one of my friends is convinced that somebody spoke to someone who wrote that film.
“Some of the stories from it are just absolutely nuts - I have never been on another stag that was that mental.”
I have a tattoo on a certain area of my body… I don’t know how much of this you can write about. I got it done on my stag do so the whole show is essentially me telling that story and how I got my nickname
Although most would be nervous about taking a show and scaling it up from 60 to 11,000 people (the SSE’s maximum capacity), Paddy admits he gets “a buzz performing on any stage”.
“You have a level of performance no matter where you’re playing,” he says.
“A wee small room like the one in McHugh’s where it’s a sweaty, basement-style environment is perfect for comedy and the feeling you get in those wee rooms is really intimate.
“And because of that I remember people telling me the first time I did the SSE that I wouldn’t like it - I did worry that the feeling would get lost in a bigger room but I have to say I absolutely loved it.
“I was doing a bit of crowd work and the feeling was unreal – I honestly can’t wait to get back.
“You’re going to hear a great story about a local Irish lad, there’s going to be great music, there are prizes to be won - it’s going to be a great night and a completely different kind of show.”
