I caught the performing bug at a young age from my mam’s piano lessons. When I was 12 I started drama lessons with the wonderful Eleanoir Cazabon Reagan and was cast as the smallest Snow White you’ve ever seen. One of the seven dwarves was taller than me.
I then went on to study drama, theatre and performance in NUIG, where I was in numerous productions with the drama society.
I had always adored making people laugh and dreamed of doing stand-up comedy, having grown up watching tapes of Billy Connolly and Tommy Tiernan on rotation in my house. However, I had no idea how to make it happen.
When I was nine I spotted Tommy Tiernan in a cafe in Galway and begged my mam to get his autograph for me. Even at that young age I was a fan. She told me I would have to do it myself, which I eventually did. I still have the autograph.
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In 2015 my friend Jack McKenna was doing stand-up in London and I was inspired to give it a go in Ireland, but I didn’t pluck up the courage until three years later. I had moved to Dublin for work, where I met the fantastic Ruth Hurl, who also had aspirations to do stand up. We made a pact that we would sign up for an open mic together and not let each other back out.
We did our first gig in October 2018 in Battle Of The Axe in the Ha’penny Bridge Inn in Dublin. Although I had been crying with the nerves earlier in the day, the gig went well and we were hooked.
My first set was about my hilarious granny Patty and it went down a treat. I was nervous about her finding out that I was using her stories as material, but she was delighted that even strangers enjoyed the tales of her high jinx.
After that I gigged the length and breadth of Ireland. A few times I finished work in Dublin, caught a bus to Belfast, performed for 10 minutes, caught the last bus back to Dublin, and went to work the next day.
In my first year of comedy I did a couple of gigs in London and in the prestigious club Boom Chicago in Amsterdam, which proved to me that my comedy also worked outside of Ireland.
In 2019 I was a finalist in the Show Me The Funny competition, performed in the Vodafone Comedy Carnival in Galway and in 2020 I was a runner up in the Bray Comedy Festival Best New Act competition. I was gigging three to five times a week and was really picking up momentum when the pandemic hit.
I then fled home to mam and dad in Galway and stayed there until I moved to Canada. During that time I was working from home and reluctantly doing Zoom gigs. I hated doing them, but I desperately missed doing comedy and I think my dog Maud was getting fed up with my jokes.
For years I had dreams of moving to Vancouver, but a few things got in the way, including the pandemic. Once the world starting opening up again and I was finishing up my day job, I jumped at the chance to move.
Ultimately it was a tough decision, as my boyfriend of three years is at home. He is finishing up college and had no interest in moving, whereas I had wanted to move since before I met him. It can be tough having a long-distance relationship, but I didn’t want to regret not moving as it has been something I have wanted to do for so long.
My first week here in Vancouver I signed up for a spot at an open mic and I have been gigging every week since.
The comedy community is incredibly welcoming and definitely upholds the “nice Canadian” stereotype.
I have had to tweak my sets a wee bit here and there. I have had to slow down my speech a bit. Sarcasm is not really their thing and there are different slang words too. Craic has a very different meaning here, which I was reminded of when someone asked me why I moved to Vancouver and my answer was “for the craic!”
Things are going really great. I am flat out gigging every week and I have just been signed by a talent agency. I have had the opportunity to gig with incredible comedians and I ran a comedy night as part of CelticFest Vancouver, hosting a St Patrick’s Day variety show that had a Blindboy Burlesque act.
At the end of last month I ran a dog-friendly comedy show called More Irish, More Black, More Dogs. While I know that I will eventually settle in Ireland, I’ll stay here for another while — for the craic.
Amy Walsh is a comic in Vancouver. She is from Galway
Amy Walsh is on Instagram at amy.walshy and her Facebook page is Amy Walsh Comedy
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