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<\/a>\u00d3 Briain tried his hand at it and the rest is humorous history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was kind of a competition thing,\u201d says \u00d3 Briain. \u201cI told a joke at the very beginning, a joke not worth repeating as it was so specific to the moment, but I got a big laugh and a big round of applause.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00d3 Briain says that the laughter and applause hit him hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like the first hit of a drug, to be very honest. Something I\u2019d never felt before, and I\u2019ve been chasing that first hit ever since,\u201d he says. \u201cThat sheer adrenaline rush. It was a very nice feeling, and it started in university. I became the guy who was called upon to host the big charity events, blind date, that kind of stuff. I became that guy on campus. So I decided, okay, I\u2019m going to try doing this in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Initially, comedy was slow going for \u00d3 Briain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAt first it\u2019s just, you try, you try, you try this,\u201d says \u00d3 Briain. \u201cThe nursery slopes of comedy are pretty gentle. You get five minutes. If that goes right you get another five minutes. If that goes right you might get moved up to 10 minutes, and back again. It\u2019s all geared up to getting you started, they\u2019re giving you a small amount of time, and then just when you feel you\u2019re just getting it right, then you wake up 28 years later and you\u2019re still doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00d3 Briain has been touring for the last year and a half, so when he reaches Vancouver Island his show should be smooth sailing, with some added Canadian content.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been all through the UK and Ireland,\u201d says \u00d3 Briain. \u201cBy the time it gets to Victoria it will have been performed 144 times. So it\u2019s pretty polished. So when it gets to you, it will not only be polished, but it will have extra Canadian bits. The last time I was there, it revolved around a taxi driver in Moncton, New Brunswick, who had explained that Moncton had more Tim Hortons than anywhere else in Canada. Then he listed off every single one, and its location. So that became part of the show.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00d3 Briain is looking forward to have his tour end on the west coast and says he feels it\u2019s sort of a gift to himself.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I get there, I will have literally done the entire country. I will have to ask the other people of Canada what they think of the people of Victoria. I\u2019m not exactly sure what they\u2019ll say,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cPerhaps they\u2019ll be like, \u2018Oh, those people in Victoria, surrounded by all that impressive beauty all the time and taking it for granted, while we are sitting here in Moncton with a river that occasionally swells.\u2019 … Most of the tour we spend driving along the motorway in UK, visiting small towns. The UK is a huge country with lots of small towns, lots of small theatres. But the prize at the end is I get to dip my toes in the Pacific Ocean. So you\u2019re like the reward at the end of the tour, and I can only imagine the mood I will be in when I get there. I will be like, I have earned this, by just surviving through all these years.\u201d<\/p>\n