When asked to describe her comedy, Eleanor Tiernan offers an observation made by a friend. “My friend said: ‘Eleanor is like a teacher who has been accused of doing something inappropriate but is still in denial about it,’” she says.

“I am not a teacher – and there is nothing about teaching in my act – but that is the kind of feeling she gets from it. It’s kind of dry, people don’t seem to know if I’m joking or not. I hope it’s rewarding for people who do get it.”

It must be, as Eleanor has been making a career out of comedy for the past 12 years. The Athlone woman (from the Roscommon side) is known for appearances on RTÉ’s Irish Pictorial Weekly as well as her stand-up routine.

Coming from a line of people who did “good jobs that are meaningful in society”, she studied engineering in NUIG. She worked in the sector until 2004, when she took a career break to study performance art and pursue comedy. Her first stand-up gig was in the Ha’penny Bridge Inn, after finishing her job that day.

“It’s easy now to go back and say I had a big plan, but I really didn’t. I was just doing what I wanted to do, and comedy had much less responsibility attached to it and much more fun in an obvious way. I was just pleasing myself. I didn’t have any dependents, so I had freedom to do that,” she says.

an addiction of sorts

That first gig sparked an addiction of sorts, even if it wasn’t her best performance.

“I got a good reaction, but I think people just warmed to me because they felt I was very vulnerable. It wasn’t that what I had written was particularly good, I just think these people thought: ‘This poor girl needs our support.’

“But doing stand-up kind of makes you want to do it again. You kind of get a bit obsessed with getting it right and more laughs from the crowd. You find out very quickly what works and what doesn’t.”

Eleanor is known for her deadpan delivery. Her appearance on the RTÉ One’s Today Show in 2013, in which a joke about Dublin butchers, elderly women and sausages went completely over the heads of Daithi O’Se and Maura Derrane, went viral online. Another clip of her delivering a spoof report on a court case on Irish Pictorial Weekly has over 100,000 views on YouTube, with some believing it was a real story.

“Nobody ever associated me with it, because my name wasn’t on it. People thought it was a genuine news reporter,” she says. “What will happen sometimes – which is really lovely – is that people will come to the gig and the penny will drop and they’ll be really surprised. They love having discovered that fact. That’s a nice thing when it happens. It’s almost like subversive marketing.”

getting serious

She also tackles serious issues. In 2014, as part of an event called “We Need to Talk About Ireland”, she attempted to “heal the Irish psyche” by satirically listing all the things that have happened to Irish people, and asked to audience to respond saying: “It’s not your fault.”

The incidents included Roy Keane leaving the Irish team in Saipan, the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, and the Celtic Tiger property bubble.

Eleanor says the idea for the show came after the revelation of the Anglo tapes, and she decided to treat comedy like therapy.

“It was so embarrassing to hear those bankers go on. It was just so undignified and insulting to the Irish citizen. Between all of that I thought there was a need for something artistic to heal the Irish psyche,” she says.

“Once I started talking about things that have happened to the Irish citizen, the list just started to come out and it got longer and longer and longer.”

She is now looking forward to performing in Cork for the inaugural Cork Comedy Fest, which takes place from 23 to 25 September. She will appear at the festival’s gala opening on Friday.

“It’s exciting, because comedy always goes really well down there. People in Cork love comedy and have a brilliant sense of humour,” she says.

As for what to expect, you’ll have to find out on the night.

“I have some funny stuff – but I don’t want to ruin the surprise. There’s always some space for magic to happen,” she adds. CL

The inaugural Cork Comedy Fest takes place from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 September and will see more than 20 comedy gigs in five venues across Cork city featuring a host of top stand-ups including Eleanor Tiernan, Deirdre O’Kane, Neil Delamere, Jason Byrne and Foil, Arms & Hog. Visit www.corkcomedyfest.com for more information on gigs and to buy tickets.