My Day

Brian Ormond: Entertainer

Brian Ormond: Entertainer

DECEMBER is crazy for me. At the moment I'm narrating The Snowmanin the National Concert Hall which I just love. I did it last year for the first time and when you hear the boy soprano sing Walking in the Air, for me that's Christmas.

This morning, I had a meeting at 10.30am with the show’s director. An Post is our sponsor and we have a postman on stage this year, Postman Paddy, of course.

An Post is looking at introducing new uniforms next year, so we were talking about ways of incorporating that into the show.

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We are doing four shows a day and they’re just over an hour each.

We also feature the children from the Independent Theatre Workshop, who will be performing Christmas songs and songs from Glee. And, of course, Santa will be making an appearance.

I love Christmas, especially as I’ve a 10-year-old daughter. I got engaged at Christmas last year, and this is the first year my fiancée, Pippa, and I will be holding Christmas dinner in our own home for our families.

During The Snowmanrehearsals, we started at 8.30am and worked through until noon with the orchestra and then typically I'd leave the NCH and head over to RTÉ to record my show, Two Tube.

It’s a series of interviews and links running between 5pm and 7pm and I alternate the role with Sinead Kennedy. It goes out live and that suits me grand. I much prefer working live to working on a pre-recorded show.

With live TV, you get that great buzz of having one chance and one chance only to get something right and once it’s done, it’s done. With recorded shows, you’re inclined to ask for things to be done again and again, just because you can.

Because it's Christmas there are loads of things going on at the moment. I went to see Scroogeat the Grand Canal Theatre, which was fantastic, and I popped in to see Mikey Graham in Aladdinat the Gaiety, which was great too.

I've also been filming my show Who Are You Kiddingfor RTÉ, the one where the adults have to perform and the kids are the judges.

That was done in front of a live audience of 1,200 in the Helix and will be going out over Christmas, so it’s been crazy busy.

Today, I had a quick lunch at the Conrad Hotel, across the road from the NCH, with my agent. I gave up children’s TV presenting in the summer with a view to doing more family entertainment, so that’s what we were talking about.

I’ll finish up in RTÉ tonight at 7pm and head home. There’s a big party on that my fiancée is going to, but I’m not. I’ve to be up early for work tomorrow, so I’ll stay in, cook and watch some TV instead.

* The Snowmanruns until December 23rd, nch.ie

* In conversation with Sandra O'Connell