Comedian Eleanor Tiernan surprised when her ‘court reporting’ went viral

Comedian Eleanor Tiernan has told how she was surprised when her ‘court reporting’ went viral.

Clips of Eleanor as reporter Ursula McCarthy went viral on the internet as many thought the spoof from RTE show Irish Pictorial Weekly was real.

And Eleanor revealed she is looking forward to doing more of the same soon.

She said: “I thought it was interesting what the branding of television can do – when people saw it on television they knew it was a joke.

“But when you took the branding off it it was very easy to trick people. We are just used to this particular format of news being generated and when you mimic it people can get tricked into believing it.”

Eleanor, who is just back from a stand-up run at the Edinburgh Festival, said she’s happy doing any shows, whether on TV or the stage, as long as they are funny.

And she reckons she got into stand up comedy as a way of getting attention.

Eleanor revealed: “There is a little bit of selfishness to it – I think I probably liked being the centre of attention. And there’s no better feeling than making people laugh. The opposite is true when it doesn’t work.

“I would never have been the class clown type of character but I suppose it’s only nerve wracking if you think social embarrassment is a big thing.

“There are far worse problems than to be worried about what people think of you.”

Eleanor is currently performing her new show The National Therapy Project as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival in the Liberty Hall Social Hall for the next four days.

The comedian will set out to solve our problems as a nation following her performance at the We Need To Talk About Ireland event.

She said: “The idea is that people will come to an hour long therapy session, I have distilled all the best theory and put it into this one blast of therapy to heal us all from the past.

“I think we have a problem with procrastination, I think we have a problem with the tendency to believe our own point of view to a point where that is not healthy.

“People were queuing again for houses to buy them off plan – that is exactly the kind of behaviour this therapy session is hoping to address.”

Anyone looking for a bit of comedy therapy should contact the box office on 1850 374 643.

Source – The Irish Mirror