"He's just really interested in people and there's a kindness behind that, it comes across in his show and every time I watch it, my jaw just drops."
While acting isn't something that you'd instantly associate with Tommy Tiernan, the comedian from Navan has had quite the career on TV and the big screen.
In fact, for many people, Tiernan's role in Father Ted as the depressed priest Fr. Kevin was the first time that he came to national attention.
Of course, since then, he's become one of the most famous Irish comedians of all time but he still dabbles in acting - he had small roles in the likes of The Matchmaker, About Adam, Dark Lies the Island, and more.
Well, in terms of regular appearances, it's his role as the beleaguered Da Gerry in Derry Girls that has been Tiernan's most regular acting gig and he has certainly made an impression.
We love any scene when he's getting abused by Granda Joe while the little smirk he had after seeing the girls at the Take That gig was one of the best moments from Season 2.
As always, the comedian is a very busy man but with another brilliant season of The Tommy Tiernan Show drawing to a close, it appears that one of his Derry Girls co-stars just can't get enough of her colleague whenever he's interviewing people.
Tara Lynne O'Neill (Ma Mary) might play Tiernan's on-screen wife in Derry Girls, but in real life, she's just as supportive of him and his work on the show.
When O'Neill meets JOE, she's passionate about her work with the Seamus Heaney HomePlace literary centre in Bellaghy, Derry, and like Heaney, it appears that she's also in love with Tiernan's gift with words too.
"He's almost like a psychotherapist in some ways. He's just so interested in people. To me, he reminds me in a way of Blindboy because they both have similarities. Tommy doesn't pretend to be an expert in anything, he's just curious about everything. It doesn't matter who he meets and that's how I find him as a person. He's just really interested in people and there's a kindness behind that, it comes across in his show and every time I watch it, my jaw just drops.
"The fact that he doesn't know who's coming on, the questions aren't handed to him by somebody. They're just the questions that Tommy Tiernan wants to ask. How he still finds comedy in that is incredible - and you cry. I've cried at nearly every episode. He makes people feel very comfortable and that's very difficult. They also open up and say stuff that's very difficult for them to say, stuff that people would never say in another interview.
"I wasn't too well when we were filming last year and Tommy and Kathy Kiera Clarke (Aunt Sarah) took great care of me. He's just a lovely human. I was a huge fan of his standup before meeting him, but he's just as an amazing human being, he's just beautiful and he's a brilliant actor. I hope he does more acting but it's hard to fit in with his schedule. That's what's amazing about him, he can go from doing standup in front of thousands of people to sitting with one person on a TV show for an hourlong chat."
The Tommy Tiernan Show airs tonight on RTÉ One at 9.45pm.
