here here!

taken the words from my mouth, faire balls jinx sure your a gas..no wait..em you hit the nail on the head.

fuck the cunts!

even though id like to be a bit funnier now and again i think if i sat down to write something funny id end up crying... maybe that says more about how fucked up i am?..

so how was your mantua? maddness was mine, best bit was buying wellies from a auld fella!

hugs
 

You have indeed, as always, hit the nail 'firmly' on the head!!

There are a lot of wankers out there passing themselves off as musicians and songwriters too - i'd say probably more than those who are attempting to pass themselves of as comedians. Then there are the bread-heads who don't give a fiddlers fuck for their chosen artform - who just see it purely as a way to make money that doesn't involve driving a cab or digging up roads. I'm an old JCC fan too and i love Ivor Cutler... but you are right... spoken word is a precarious existance :) you carry it off the best i've seen in a while!

I think my gas character would more than likely be acetylene :)

Must get a chat with you soon... I know we are meant to organise a gig - things have been hectic here for a few weeks... but settling down a little now.
 

Holy Crap ,Street Hassle is without doubt my favourite song of all time I get excited at the mere mention of it,in fact Im off to listen to it now.Great show aT THE GREEN GATHERING BY THE WAY. ;)
 

Words of wisdom as always Jinx.

The worst type are those breakfast radio fuckers...try to make me laugh at 8:30am stuck in poxy monsoon traffic on my way to purgatory ltd..for a day of soul sucking wage slavery..Prank phone call in a funny voice..Fuck off !!!
If you can't laugh...you might as well laugh.
Everyone's a fucking comedian these days.. Whats so funny ???
See if those soft fat smug metro-sexual bastards are still laughing when their i-phones stop working and people are rioting for food and water...in the Mad Max stylee..
I'm stocking up on tinned foods...

Keep on rockin !!!
 

Well Jinx ive good news for you, the late 2000's version of the middle class failed drama school wa*kers who destroyed comedy in the 90's have changed their choosen "art" form in favour of being singer songwriters. Was chatting to a comedian recently and we both seemed to agree that the problem is that most of them go straight from college to comedy without ever visiting the world the write about, well your modern "singer songwriter" (slouchy fake accent talker,piss poor poetry passed of as songs) are starting to knock out songs that sound as fake as the 18yr old punk kids maurading around Camden. Drama school confidence replacing something to say and an attidude to say it in, can fool most of the people some of the time but they can fcuk off as far as im concerned! ps as far as comedy some of Dave Chapelle's stuff is quality
 

when i first started playing open mics in brighton just before we started antifolk.org, it was a kinda gatecrash to their "safe music" party. But one night at the sanctuary after myself and Jimmy had played the host declared "that's the comedy hour over".

I could have tore his fucking limbs off.
 

you r right
 

your qoute:
I understand that some people in the comedy field feel that they are enlightening people and maybe they are but i d'ont see much of it .


colum responds:
i know of no comedian who feels they are enlightening people and ive worked the circuit for 8 years now.



your qoute:
As an Irishman whose material is abundant with spoken word material i do attract those involved in the comedy circuit and i am very wary of entering any arena or space where i may be subject to being placed beneath the banner of 'comedy act' which i have unwittingly let happen to me before now on many a soul destroying night so now i hope i am a little wiser.


colum responds:
i am a comedian.i enjoy making people laugh. its that simple.i have no lofty view of self importance. its just comedy. and a living. and the piece of jigsaw that is me fits with comedy. it seems you are being made uncomfortable by people who categorise you as a comedy act, that is not comedians fault, perhaps you could give some thought to that.


as a fan of your music and a fellow Dundalk man i was bitterly disappointed to find this blog entry. i take it as a personal attack on what i do for a living. would you deride any other profession in the same manner?..a postman, an office clerk, a council worker?.. no i think not, because you are not mistaken for any these.


i thought you transcended the look down your nose singer songwriter type..i may have to rethink that.


a very disappointed colum mcdonnell
 

No need to be disappointed at all Colm,no need.Every man has got to carry his own weight and i am heartily tired of listening to arsehole skit merchants on Hibernian radio(radio being harder to escape from because its omnipresent)people doing those silly anaemic comic paddywackery ditties stuff that passes as satire usually with NARTHsowOide Dustin turkey/sub Sesame Street voices,and a lot of them seem to be ex musicians by the way that's what gets me, you can almost smell the desperation.There is no anger or energy in it and that is what bugs me ,its just more ear wallpaper for the empty heads.I enjoy a bit of comedy now and then when its making a point about something or has something surreal and original about it .I d'ont feel i'm a snob cos i used to love Big O's dirty jokes when he used to do the 21st parties etc,he had a Northern abrasiveness i used to like same with Frank Carson,Niall Tobin's characatures of Irish life i used to dig and i saw Dylan Moran at Flatlakes this year and he is great because he left the audience perplexed instead of laying out a wooden floor of laughter to be sucked up in a linear mode by the listeners.Anyways most of what i see that passes as comedy is obsequious and seems to be dependent on silly gesticulation and exaggerated facial expression to make its point or else its too slick and lazy and knowing and leaves me refrigerated because you can almost see these comics as human blue tac moulding themselves into whatever shape an audience wants them to be, a bit obvious like,a bit like present day Fianna Fail.You are definitely being presumptuous when you say i am being made feel uncomfortable by people who consider me as a comedy act or that i am attacking what people do for a living ,the bottom line is i actually just need to draw the line here and set out my stall because i feel it has been set out for me in the past more often than not by certain parties and i feel its time that needs to change and i need to take control of the steering wheel.Its time more people had opinions in Hibernia instead of pretending they like everything and everybody because they are afraid to rock the boat,thats real life my friend .I wish you all the best in your ventures and many more years enjoyment at what you do.
Keep it lit !
 

Ah now for comedians none of you's are coming accross very funny! You all seen sensitive and touchy about what Jinx is has to say. I do not claim to be smarter than any of you and maybe coz I know jinx well I can understand what he is saying, noone gets the obvious here - He has no problem with comedians -he just doesnt want to be put under the same umbrella as them.
Whats wrong with that?


I tour with Jinx all the time and I do admit that some of his material can be funny in places but theres nothing more annoying than someone coming up and saying hes a comedian.



Jinx Lennon is no comedian -he is a poet and a story teller and when he tells his stories he can be funny.



He dosent go out to make people laugh, and maybe im wrong but I think thats what he is driving at.






We all have to admit there is a lot of tripe passing for comedy and a lot of tripe passing for music and I cant believe you all seem so mad at Jinx for sharing his opinion. The world would be a much better place if more people where as honest as him.



I know for a fact that Jinx admires peoples professions nomatter what they do and he can be called a lot of things but a snob is not one of them. He works in a hospital every second week on 12hr shifts for 7 days straight pushing trollys, mopping up vomit and blood and taking all the shit of the day and he looks down on noone.






I may be coming accross as biased but hand on heart I can say he is the most honest person I have ever met (sometimes too honest) and it hurts me to see people reading into what he said.



Ok maybe he dressed the blog up in fancy words but he was just trying to say- he had no problem with comedians, as long as he isnt mistaken for one.






My take on it is if he was to start doing the comedy circuit he would run the risk of people taking him less serious and as we all agree he has a message and the minute he starts making light of it he will be selling his soul.
If you saw Jinx Lennon on Podge and Rodge would you not think he was going down the wrong road?





Now what he said is not saying that he is superior its simply saying you are a comedian -you make people laugh-thats great thats your thing. But he is a musician and being laughed at is not a good thing. Get the Guards may have been funny and that bit of publicity could have taken him down the Richie Kavanagh or Aidan Walsh route and thank goodness some people saw beneath the surface of that song.






But it will be a sad day the day that Jinx Lennon is number one in the charts for some Irish version of a Peter K type thing and it could easily be taken that way -and I think he needs to be careful the media and the people take him as a serious artist and not a comedian. No disrespect to comedians they do that for a living and they need people to laugh.






Maybe you just need to know him to know he is a good man with his heart in the right place. I just wish this country understood him and got his material for what it is. Some people do and thats great but its a bit frightening when we hear fans (ex fans) saying they wont buy his new album.



It seems in this wee country we cant have an opinion for fear of stepping on someone elses toes or hurting them.









The main problem here is Jinx's confidence in his art is being mistaken for snobbery. If you were confident in your own profession and yourself you wouldnt give two shits what Jinx Lennon thought of what you did.



Mark E Smith is known to be the rudest man on earth and Bob Dylan puts zero effort into his live shows but it doesnt stop me going to see them or buying their records.



Jinx Lennon says it how it is and if you are offended by all means tell him but also try to see where he is coming from. In this small Island over run with comedians jumping about it can be hard to move and we are told when to laugh and what is and isnt funny etc.
and of course some comedians are funny (like you PJ-I dont know your work Colum)





I think its hard for people like Jinx to have a place as its not seen as music and we all know the media like to give everything a label... 'this is pop this is rock, this is comedy etc'... and its like they have no box for Jinx so they fuck him into the comedian box and that is not good when you want to be taken as a serious musician.






Give him a break and someone please make a box for Jinx Lennon.

 

Was i presumptous to express my opinion?, Are your opinions gospel and mine mere presumption? And what of your presumptions on the subject of Irish comedians thinking they enlighten the masses?..is this not a sweeping remark that tars all of my colleagues, good or bad, with the same brush?.. i feel it is you who is not seeing the whole picture. i respect everyones opinion and preferences, but when you have what appears to be a limited knowledge of a subject you should refrain from deriding others in the public domain.


also i should point out most radio comedy is the equivalent of chart music. good comedy is found in the small clubs not in theatres or on dvds.


thought you may have realised this. we will leave it there, i just felt a need to fight my corner for a much maligned but ultimately my preferred artform.


Best o luck in life to you.