Conor O'Toole,graphic designer by day, comedian by night
I knew I wanted to be a comedian when . . .I realised how heavy musical equipment was. Comparatively, a solid mahogany Gibson Thunderbird and an Ashdown Engineering 15-inch amplifer have a far lower "entertainment per kilogram" value than an SM58 microphone.
The best day of my life so far . . .was April 1st, 1991. I was born, and my sense of self-worth increased massively. I went from not being a person to being a person, just like that. I got a cool certificate, had some air, had a bit of a snooze. Sleeping is always immense fun. Plus it was my first day, I had nothing to compare it to. So, naturally, I was impressed by everything.
Dublin's comedy scene is . . .disproportionately funny. We've more brilliant comedians per square mile than anywhere else in the world. All we need now is more audiences to try out our jokes on.
My guilty pleasure is . . .the typeface Helvetica. I'm a designer by day and whenever I'm feeling lazy I jump straight to Helvetica. It's boring, but it's quick and handy to use, giving me more time to listen to All Saints. Never Ever, what a song. That poem at the start gets me every time. By the by, if you are reading this online, on a Mac, you're looking at Helvetica. If you're on a PC, like me, it's Arial, unfortunately.
My show about fonts came about because . .. everyone should have at least a fundamental understanding of typography. They teach you nothing about good lettering in school. The letters in Modern Handwriting 1 are particularly abominable. An appreciation of good fonts can turn every street into a fascinating banquet for the eyes. Type is everywhere. Conor O'Toole's Manual of Style is an attempt to show that.
The recession . . .means nothing to me. I never really took any heed of it as I only have a very basic understanding of economics; I know the number I have in the bank and the number the man in the shop wants for the thing that I want. Both of those amounts are generally quite low so I didn't worry too much. I only learned what negative equity was last month from one of Colm O'Regan's jokes, and it sounds bad.
The best piece of advice I ever got was . . .keep it up. It seems to take most comics five or 10 years to get good at telling jokes. Whenever I feel a bit glum I read reviews of guys like Michael McIntyre, from five years ago when he was getting two stars. Always cheers me up. I don't feel bad about enjoying that because he's now massively popular and rich. He's probably eating a sandwich made of gold right now.
Being the youngest solo act at last year's Edinburgh Fringe . . .didn't help me sell tickets. I was essentially saying, "Hey, look at me, I'm inexperienced." I was on before noon, too, so I mostly performed to elderly retirees who didn't want to see some loser kid eat a bunch of cloves and call it a show. Still got more than two stars though. Take that, McIntyre! This year I'm on at 4pm. That's much better.
My attitude to hecklers is . . .one of sympathy. I'm sure I'd think I was terrible too if I was hammered.
If I wasn't a comedian I'd . . .find it very difficult to find something to do. I'd just cycle around all day, drink a lot of tea and complain about font to people who don't care. In other words, my life would be in no way different.
My artistic heroes are . . .Einstürzende Neubauten for their contribution to sound, Buster Keaton for his work in silence, Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones for their typefaces and Simon Munnery for his joke about the topology of roads. It changed the way I think about roads.
In conversation with Sinéad Gleeson
Conor O’Toole plays the International on Thursday, July 7th, as part of 10 Days in Dublin. Tickets are €5 and are available from 10daysindublin.ie
