02:51 Upbringing in America and moving to Ireland

Born in London in November 1975

Raised in Queens, New York

Des was expelled from school because he failed two subjects, then six weeks later went to boarding school in Wexford, Ireland

07:58 Des�s first experience of stand-up

He was a part of the drama society at college

He took part in joke performances then was recommended to be the MC for open mic nights

His first stand-up was material came from imitating a Cork accent as an American

12:35 Having �early-validation� people

Barry Murphy was very generous with his time and helped set up gigs for Des in Dublin

14:18 Moving from a past-time to a full-time career in stand-up

It happened very fast after Irish comedy gained a lot of attention when Father Ted was in season two and three

Carroll�s Cigarettes was sponsoring college comedy nights and the Irish heat of the BBC Comedy Awards, which was only Des�s tenth gig and he could sense that he was a �one-to-watch� � despite being heckled by Brendan O�Connor

Des moved to Dublin in the summer of 1977 for paid gigs, including being the MC for the Rocky Horror Show

�It�s not always your degree that matters in your college experience, it�s the other things you do and the people you meet�

19:38 The impact of audience interaction on his work material

Heckling doesn�t happen as often as people think

Sometimes you lose the audience because of what you say

Des attended a brilliant standup performance by a deaf person, communicating in sign language and being translated to the non-deaf audience

25:16 Des�s process from idea to the final material on stage

Des likes to develop his ideas on stage through trial and error

For example, after his mum died, there were some elements of humour he could share with his audience on stage

After testing out some jokes on stage, Des then commits to a theme for a show, which takes a lot of time

Des feels like his standup material doesn�t need so much 9-5 discipline, as it can be overkill for his work which relies on ideas

Whenever he gets a new idea, he writes it down or records a voice memo

Des records his own shows as most of his jokes come from the stage

�My brain is most in the zone when I�m on the stage�

33:40 The storytelling approach to telling jokes

Des adlibs a lot on stage and can tell quickly how to pace his story

Des is a natural storyteller so he just plays to his strengths

�Every style has its limitations�

The best joke writers tend to have more mathematical brains

39:20 Building confidence that you can guide an audience and take control of the room

It takes time � at least five years

You are immediately told by your audience when you�re not in control

It�s less about writing jokes and more about getting up on stage

42:48 What�s it like to �bomb� on stage?

It can feel really bad at the time, but you quickly get over it

Over time, you learn tricks to recover from �bombing� on stage

Just remember that the audience will never feel as bad you feel

45:26 Societal messages and commentary through comedy

After the �In The Name of The Father� tour, Des felt very motivated to show people that Irish is being taught terribly at school

Comedy is good at presenting specific scenarios to highlight social and political problems

49:51 Learning Mandarin

Des was brought up in a Chinese neighborhood in Queens

He went to China in 2004 and was really motivated to learn Chinese

52:41 The role of comedy in Des�s personal life

There is a time and place for comedy and finding material

It can be used as a defense mechanism, which has been pick up on during his therapy sessions

�Standup is a performance, not real life�

56:09 What is next for Des

Some his ambitions are to deliver standup comedy in Mandarin (and make the Chinese audience laugh), and �give America another go�

It�s always tempting to take in the financial opportunities he gets in Ireland, but you need to take risks sometimes, e.g. Dara O�Brien took on the UK stage instead of Ireland � it was a big risk but it paid off