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Brendan Dempsey.
 Brendan Dempsey is a man in repose, at home in London late one evening when our international phone saga is resolved. It appears the Irishman, who moved to the big city a few years ago, has been using his time wisely whilst awaiting my call. "I'm sitting here on the sofa holding a bloody thumb where I've been bitten by our pet rats... rats, yes. Some of my friends think it's a weird thing to have, but they're really very very sweet."
Current evidence to the contrary, since obviously the deed was done by either Pete or Dudley, for such are they named. "Yes," Dempsey agrees patiently, "they're named for Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore, and I let them out of their cage for a bit of a run around. I was bitten when I did exactly what you should never do." He pauses to savour the punchline... "they do say beware of a cornered rat!"
His repose is temporary, for he reveals in short order that he has engagements down in Southhampton and thence North in Scotland before he flys to Adelaide for the Fringe Festival, where he is to appear in 'Cream Of Irish' along with his good friend Ian Coppinger and rising stand up comedian Maeve Higgins.
"Yes, Ian Coppinger and I were in '[One Flew Over The] Cuckoos Nest' together, which ended about a year go after a run in London," he reveals.
In fact, having appeared in a few movies (one being the execrable 'Gangs Of New York'), he's developing something of a parallel career alongside his standup comedy.
You'd think you might recognise him from a movie such as that - he stands a sturdy six feet six inches (in the old money)... and for 'Cream Of Irish' obviously (I point out) has the weight of a nation's expectations resting upon his broad shoulders. The former schoolboy rugby player ("I was never mean enough about getting the ball, I thought if I wanted one enough I'd just go and buy one") distracts me from the subject at hand by turning our conversation to those absurd sporting contests between an Australian Rules squad and an Irish hurling team, a fictitious game played by two teams who have no idea of the bastardised rules.
He also - quite mystifyingly - loves to tell me about Adelaide - a town I know quite well. "Rundle Street's marvellous..." he opines. Yes, quite. "Villi's pies, they're from Adelaide." Yes, they are. "You could just live on them," he offers. Well I didn't know that.
Having gone through our collective knowledge of Adelaide and laid to rest any issues of ancient sporting rivalries, I ask him what sports he now practises.
"Scuba diving. I like scuba diving. If I get some time off I'd like to go to Kangaroo Island and dive with the seals."
'You don't know as much about Adelaide as you think, sport' I tell myself, and regale him with a five minute lecture on bloody big sharks, and how much they like pallid white skin stuffed into a seal coloured wetsuit.
Several times he asks whether I'm pulling his leg, so I decide we'd better steer our way back to safer topics. Tell me about the 'Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes' Festival in Finland, I lead, having read that it was the scene of one of his many triumphs.
"Yes, I know it's listed as the 'Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes' Festival, but there's only two. Perhaps next year they'll get another 'Tomatoes'... it's only their second or third festival, set up by comedians themselves who been at the Kilkenny Festival in Ireland and went home to organise something for themselves. Held in a small town about 100km out of Helsinki, neither Dempsey nor I have any idea of why the festival has such a name.
"I did ask once - I suppose everybody asks once - but it was late at night and I can't recall if I got an answer," he reveals, sounding very sage about the lack of an explanation.
"Short festivals like the one in Kilkenny in Ireland are good, and you're done and gone before there's any serious damage done, no reviews been written." He concludes fondly, "Adelaide's good like that too, it's not as cut-throat as some festivals..."
Alex Wheaton
 | 'Cream Of Irish' plays at the Arts Theatre as part of the Fringe Festival from Thurs 23 Feb. |
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