Three Men Talking About Things They Kinda Know About

(Image: Jessica Ryan)

This year's Absolut fringe in Dublin includes three spoken word aficianados in a self written piece that's well worth a look. Here's the fringe link

Expect rhythm and rhyme, Dublin and laughs, anger, nostalgia, universal truths, discomforting questions and thoughful asides. Expect the unexpected except don't expect awful cliches like "expect the unexpected."

Here's the masterful and dashingly handsome Colm Keegan. Guess which one is which in the photos.

I'm Colm Keegan. All round chancer and accidental poet. I have the honour of being part of the amazing Nighthawks which is the brainchild of Stephen Kennedy and co-run by him, me, Julie McGovern and Mary Cahill Kennedy.
Stephen James Smith is the MC of the legendary Glor Sessions, the flagship night at the heart of the independent self funded arts scene exploding into life around us. Show me any other man (or woman) who says they're more at the heart of things right now and I'll chuck them into the Liffey cause they're lying.  
Kalle Ryan is the loudest MC I know, an amazing sketch writer and the Lord Mayor of poetical ranting. He runs the Brown Bread Mixtape (with Enda Roche) which has to be seen to be believed and to me is the best night out in Dublin.
 
What's the show about?

It's about things we kinda know about. It's about exploring things we mightn't like to freely admit, shedding old skins and moving on. It's about our experiences, what we've learned from things we've been through and which might help someone else along the way.  

How did you come up with the idea to be part of the fringe?

Myself Stephen James Smith and Kalle Ryan became friends after meeting on the spoken word scene in Dublin. Stephen suggested the idea last year but we were all too busy but when the submission time came round again we all decided to go for it.

I love the photo of you on barstools.

It's mad that you mention that photo, people have assumed so much about the play based on it and photo's are a kind of touchstone in the play. Also, it was a photo that made me believe we had to do something together.

It's written collaboratively. How did that work?

We basically met up in each others houses and wrote together. If was fun at first, then we got harder on each other and it got tougher towards the end.. We had to take criticism and learn when to stop giving it too. In a collaboration, it's important to not try and commandeer the process too much. But because we trust each others judgement though I think we found a nice balance.  

Who do you see your audience to be? Who are you writing for?

We didn't think much about the audience at first, we thought more about what we wanted to dig into. Good writing comes from what you're a bit afraid of yourself, so we went after that. One thing that surprised us is that the few women who had a chance to listen in on initial readings thought that women might get more of it from men. We really only thought of the audience when it came to making sure we weren't being selfish with our own stuff - for instance I was harping on about something which could have bored the audience until the other guys pointed it out.  

Do you have aunts and cousins looking for tickets? Would that bother you?

Kinda - I know family coming would bother me slightly, and deffo one of the other lads. It's a non-fiction show, there's some dirt ditched. It's weird - sometimes you depend on those people for bums on seats. But personally I think this piece would work best on people who don't know us. We've sacrificed certain things for the sake of length and structure, and some people who know us might be thinking, 'wait a cotton pickin minute - it didn't happen exactly like that!  

Did anyone else have an input? 

The director, Sarah Brennan, has had a huge input. We're really excited about where she's taking the play. We're used to just getting up on stage and doing some poems.. This is going to be completely different.  

Any special pre-performance rituals?

Maybe - walking to the luas at half seven in the morning spouting lines loudly into the pissing rain before rehearsals later that day is kinda special right?  

When and where? 

Upstairs in The International Bar 19th to 24th Septemnber 7 pm start all week and 5.30 on Saturday

So get down there and see for yourself. What are these three men talking about.