Search icon

Life

09th Jul 2010

Après Match star Risteárd Cooper

JOE sits down for a drink with Après Match impersonator, Risteárd Cooper, and hears about the lure of Bulmers ads and the impossible impersonation.

JOE

JOE sat down for a drink with Après Match star Risteárd Cooper and hears about the lure of Bulmers ads, the impossible impersonation and what the ultimate Après Match would be like.

By William Nestor

We expect funny people to be funny all the time, however, more often than not, we are left disappointed after we meet a comedian or witty TV personality. Having a pint with Après Match legend, Risteárd Cooper, this was certainly not the case.

Risteárd is best known for his impersonations of RTE anchorman, Bill O’Herlihy, but his acting talents have spread far and wide, from New York to Dublin to Chicago and back again.

He has worked in New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Irish Rep and Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company – a theatre that hails John Malkovich as a founder.

Cooper’s performances in TG4’s An Crisis has enabled him to brush shoulders with world famous actors on red carpets in places like Monte Carlo but currently he is preparing to take Bill O’Herlihy’s hot seat for Saturday night’s World Cup third-place play-off, live.

JOE met Risteárd in Birchall’s pub in Ranelagh for a few pints. Heres how it went down…

JOE: Hi Risteárd. What are you having?

Risteárd Cooper: I’m one of these strange types that drinks Guinness in the winter and lager in the summer. I’ve been completely bought in by the Bulmers campaign so I would probably have a Bulmers and ice as well, or a Corona with a bit of lemon or a bit of lime. So I’ll have one of those thanks.

JOE: I’ll chance the same. I agree, those Bulmers ads suck you in, especially the one where they’re all on their way to getting smashed in a marquee.

RC: I wouldn’t quite be going there now. But I’ve been totally bought in by the earlier campaign, you know, “Lazing on a sunny afternoon…”

JOE: Why did we meet here anyway?

RC: Ah, it’s local and nice and just look at all these smiley barmen.

JOE: So, your acting, there’s much more to you than Après Match characters. What’s been the highlight of your career so far?

RC: I’ve always compartmentalised all my work really in terms of theatre because I do a lot of theatre work, in New York and here as well. One of my highlights is definitely singing in the Concert Hall as the three river tenors accompanied by the RTE Concert Orchestra. That was an amazing buzz because we were basically singing a silly song about football but to quite serious classical melodies and then when the orchestra are behind you it gives the whole thing incredible weight. That was one major highlight.

JOE: You played ‘man’ in a film called 3-Minute 4-Play. What was that all about?

RC: That was a short film made by a very strange man. It’s actually pretty interesting. It’s myself and an actress called Ruth Negga. The landscape changes literally behind us, so we react to the landscapes in different ways. Basically I’m playing a bit of a redneck lout. We had great fun doing it. I basically spent the whole three minutes trying to cavort with a very pretty actress so it could have been worse.

Risteárd Cooper (left) as Pat Kenny pictured with Gary Cooke

JOE: You’re a very lucky man. You’re a bit of a Gaeilgeoir: the TG4 show you’ve been in, An Crisis, has done very well hasn’t it?

RC: That’s just finished and it was nominated for six different categories at the Monte Carlo Television Awards. Yeah, I was up for best actor with Conor McNeill in the same category. We didn’t win a thing, not a bean, not a sausage.

It was the most anti-climatic thing because they read out all the nominations and then said; “Well, Steve Carell won that but he isn’t here so let’s go on to best actress.” I was like, “So it’s over then?” That was it but I didn’t expect to win it at all. I was up against Steve Carell and Alec Baldwin. The entire budget of An Crisis would be worth maybe a minute of 30 Rock or The Office.

JOE: Damn that Steve Carell. What about Après Match, which character has come most naturally to you? We’ve a feeling it’s Uncle Bill.

Yeah, the one that I’ve been doing the longest is Bill. I was asked during the 1986 World Cup. Unbeknownst to myself all this stuff was going to my head, I went upstairs and I did Bill and Eamon Dunphy and Liam Tuohy was in it at the time also.

Bill was just somebody I had a natural affinity with. He’d be the character I’m most fond of. I think he has an amazing ability to say something that could be seen as completely clear or sarcastic. You wouldn’t know if he was being sarcastic or completely clear and earnest. I think that’s a really interesting quality as a host.

JOE: Anyone that you just couldn’t impersonate?

RC: So you want me to talk about my failures?

JOE: Well, if that’s the way you want to put it…

RC: There’s nobody I’ve kind of thought, “it would be great if I could do him but I can’t”. Certainly in terms of Après Match one of them (the panel) would give it a lash. There’s some people you have to do because they’re in the news. For a long time Gay Byrne was a tough one. Nobody could do Gay Byrne.

JOE: You’d imagine he’d be an easy one to take off?

You would. I remember the first person to impersonate him was on Scrap Saturday. The guy that did him just happened to have a voice like him. There are some people with incredibly deep voices. Let’s say Barry White for example – not that I’d ever have any cause to do Barry White – but you know what I’m saying, there’s just some people with incredible voices. Charlotte Church is on the other end of the scale.

JOE: So Saturday night it’s live. Yourself and your mates Gary Cooke and Barry Murphy have the panel all to yourselves…

RC: We’ve done it before. I think this is our third or our fourth. They’re letting us take up the reins. They’re, shall we say, optimistically cautious about us live. There’s a bit of a track record there that we haven’t shocked the nation when we are on live. I’m really looking forward to it actually and it’s a great buzz because it’s a little bit like Alice in Wonderland, you feel like a child in the adult playground. You know, we’re in their studio, I’m sitting in Bill’s seat. There’s a bit of a boyhood thrill.

JOE: Is it true that Johnny Giles wears tracksuit bottoms at the desk?

RC: He wears his boots. His boots from 1975.

JOE: Get us a picture of that if you can. It’s your round in a minute, by the way, but I’m heading to the jacks. Finish this one for me will you: Après Match would be even better if…

RC: If the real panel joined us. I wouldn’t mind seeing the real panel doing one of our sketches – that’s the best way to put it. People would argue that they do that anyway. They’re doing better impressions of us.

JOE: Brilliant. I’ll have the same again.

Après Match goes on tour after the World Cup and will begin in Limerick on Saturday, 17 July in Dolans Warehouse. Click here to buy tickets and to find other national dates and venues.

Topics:

JOE Meets