Comedian Alison Spittle is on the verge of accomplishing her lifelong dream: performing a stand-up comedy show at Vicar Street in Dublin. The Westmeath woman says the upcoming gig is akin to what a wedding would be like for most.“Mammy has got a hotel booked already for Vicar Street. It will kind of be like my version of a wedding, because I’m not getting married, ever. This is my big day out. It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever wanted to do – and it’s happening in January. This is the cherry on top at the moment. After that, I’ll have to think of a new dream.”
Comedian Alison Spittle is on the verge of accomplishing her lifelong dream: performing a stand-up comedy show at Vicar Street in Dublin. The Westmeath woman says the upcoming gig is akin to what a wedding would be like for most.
“Mammy has got a hotel booked already for Vicar Street. It will kind of be like my version of a wedding, because I’m not getting married, ever. This is my big day out. It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever wanted to do – and it’s happening in January. This is the cherry on top at the moment. After that, I’ll have to think of a new dream.”
Quirky and effortlessly funny, Alison has the ability to get people laughing using the smallest of quips, and her career is on the up, big time. As well as stand-up gigs, her first TV series Nowhere Fast, which she wrote and stars in, aired on RTÉ2 earlier this week.
The TV show is about a girl who works for a radio station in Dublin and has a great life in the capital – until she says the wrong thing on air and has to move back to the Midlands to live with her family.
It depicts the trials and tribulations of readjusting to country life. Although Alison is from the Midlands and now based in Dublin, she explains that the storyline is not based on herself.
Recently, Alison was named Tatler Woman of the Year in Comedy and had a mighty time with her Mammy at the awards ceremony: “It would have been wasted on my boyfriend. He’s gluten-free, so the food would be wasted on him. You get free drink, he doesn’t drink, so the drink would be wasted on him. I knew someone who loves a bit of food, loves a drink, is a bit of craic and would appreciate a gift bag. So, I said: ‘Mam, come on up.’”
One of Irish comedy’s fastest-rising stars, Alison had the ability to get giggles from a young age. Interestingly, she credits her comedic flair to moving around a lot when she was younger: “I moved around Westmeath a good bit when I was a young one,” she explains.
“For about six months I lived in Tyrrellspass, I lived in Mullingar, and we ended up settling in Ballymore. Because I moved around a lot, I needed to have a skill to help me introduce myself to people. So I was like, here’s a joke, now be my friend – we don’t have much time.”
A Midlands upbringing has been a huge influence on Alison’s comedy and things like colloquialisms, Irish funerals and other typical Irish traits and traditions are what her stand-up usually centres around. One of her biggest worries is that people will think she is making fun of them through her comedy, and she hopes people see the light side of it.
The funny woman was born in England and explains she always felt like a tiny bit of an outsider, but still loves where she grew up. It was this outsider status that was a huge help to her comedy, as it allowed her recognise certain Irishisms that others would overlook.
Despite branding herself an outsider, Alison definitely does not act like one and is fiercely protective and passionate about three things: the Midlands, Mullingar and Joe Dolan. “I think the Midlands is the biggest representation of what Ireland is. The Midlands is the petri dish of Ireland. We just make our own culture.
“What’s famous about Mullingar? Bressie, Niall Horan, Joe Dolan: it’s the people. You might see a pretty cliff in Clare, but you won’t get Joe Dolan there.
“I love Joe Dolan so much and Mullingar loves Joe Dolan. The older I get as well, the more I listen to him. He has a great voice, God love him. They have a statue of him in Mullingar, they have a Joe Dolan festival and they even have the Joe Dolan Bridge. It’s the longest bridge in the Republic of Ireland.”
The 28-year-old has been living in Dublin for five years and laughs that she is finally settled in now.
The capital is ideal for someone like herself who cannot drive. With her trademark humour, Alison explains that she once tried to learn how to drive outside the local GAA pitch and nearly ended up in a lake after mixing up the clutch and accelerator.
The main things she misses about living in the countryside are the smaller aspects of life, like being able to see the stars at night and the peacefulness.
Although Alison’s dream is about to be realised in the big smoke, it is in the country that her roots were firmly put down. CL
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