How agreeable are you?
I’m pretty agreeable to the extent that maybe it’s a problem in my life. I’ve got people-pleaser energy in me, but I think it’s nice because if that’s the energy you give off in the world, then that’s the energy you get back. I don’t like rudeness and injustice. They make me less agreeable.
What’s your middle name, and what do you think of it?
I’ve got a few middle names. I have Joseph and Loring, but the most important name, and my favourite, is the one I chose for my Confirmation. I don’t use it, and it isn’t on my passport, but it’s Philip, after Philip Lynott, because I’m a big fan of Thin Lizzy.
Where is your favourite place in Ireland?
Ballyconnigar strand, Co Wexford. I spent all my childhood summers there at a place my grandfather built, and every year I spend my birthday there. It’s a very simple place, but it’s beautiful. The weather is always amazing because it’s on that sunny southeast coast, and there are no phones, no internet, no anything. We go for walks, go swimming and read. It’s just a calm, peaceful place.
Describe yourself in three words.
Nice. Active. And... I’ll say funny because that would make sense, wouldn’t it?
READ MORE
When did you last get angry?
Someone had left a note on our van. We have a camper van, and the note said something like, ‘Please take this piece of junk to the trash.’ I ruminated for hours about a list of what horrible things I could do to that person, or ways that I could get back at them for insulting our van. I don’t like anonymous notes. There’s something cowardly about them. I get angry when the team I support loses, or when I play seven-a-side, which I do every week, when our team loses, or when I play badly. That makes me angry, and I find it hard to get over it.
What have you lost that you would like to have back?
It’s probably sports, which are a really big part of my life and where I get a lot of my joy from. I’m just a bit slower than I used to be, and also, my ankles and knees aren’t what they used to be, but that’s probably from playing a lot. If I were able to play football like I used to, and not have to think about my body as something that needs to be maintained, that would be great. It used to be that I could fling it around like a bag of pillows. Now I have to do these weird hip mobility exercises and ankle rolls. If I didn’t have to do that, life would be nice.
What is your strongest childhood memory?
I remember we moved around a lot. I was born in England, we moved to Ireland, and we moved between Wicklow and Dublin a few times. In the late ’90s we moved to Dublin from Greystones, where we lived in a really cool estate with a big green in the middle where all the kids used to play. Every day we’d go out to the green and play, and it was the best thing ever. We left in the summer, and I couldn’t believe we were leaving. I also remember my Confirmation. Boys used to wear suits, but my parents let me wear a jean jacket because I was into rock’n’roll. That was pretty cool.
Where do you come in your family’s birth order and has this defined you?
I’m the third of four. There was a big gap between my little brother and me, so for over eight years I would have been the youngest. I was the one who had it all and then it was ripped away from me by him. I guess that’s probably inside me somewhere – a middle child who was once a bright shining star.
What do you expect to happen when you die?
I used to think about that a lot. I think it’s probably the way it was before you were born. Not nothingness or a black emptiness, because it’s hard to imagine nothing. When I was younger, I used to read a lot of books that examined the nature of what we are and all those kinds of topics. It’s not that I’m a philistine or against anything like that, but I found more joy in life when I was investigating those questions a little less. I think there will be a stage in my life when I can return to that sort of self-examining, but as a young man in his early 20s, analysing life, wondering and thinking a lot about it, I felt like I was missing my own life a bit. I enjoy the kind of questioning. I love reading books about it, and I think they’re important, but you can get lost in those spaces.
When were you happiest?
My girlfriend, Anna, and I travel a lot. We go off to Europe and just drive, and we get a great sense of freedom from that. Playing music and listening to music make me happy. Being with my family, my friends. My dad is from Germany, and so Germany winning the 2014 World Cup was a moment of pure, ecstatic joy. Being at a comedy gig like Dara Ó Briain’s recent show Re: Creation. I remember watching that and falling over laughing. It was pure joy.
Which actor would play you in a biopic about your life?
It would have to be Michael Fassbender because he has similar roots to me. Yeah, it would have to be him.
What’s your biggest career/personal regret?
I wish I’d started comedy sooner, because I love it so much. When I was in college there were moments when I could have started, but certain things got in the way. There’s a great leap in getting on stage and I guess I wasn’t ready. I started comedy at 26, during Covid, and didn’t actually get on stage until I was 28.
Have you any psychological quirks?
I’m not a great person to have around if people are bitching or gossiping about someone. Whenever someone mentions something about someone else, I always defend the person who isn’t there. If someone was very rude to someone in a shop, and they came over to me and mentioned it, I would often say, ‘Well, you never know what’s going on in someone’s life, do you?’, and I never allow the other person to let loose. I’m annoying in that way. Maybe that references one of the words I used to describe myself – nice. Are you being nice if you’re denying a friend the opportunity to let off some steam? Is it being nice to someone I don’t know, albeit at the expense of someone I do know and care about? Maybe I have to learn how to do these things better.
Killian Sundermann is on tour nationwide throughout May. The tour concludes on Saturday, May 30th at Vicar Street, Dublin. Full details from killiansundermanncomedy.com
In conversation with Tony Clayton-Lea
