Al Porter has revealed that a lot of fellow comedians “don’t like” him.
The Tallaght native has blown up in recent years, and has landed huge TV and radio gigs – but it took a lot of time and dedication before any of that happened.
Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Al opened up about his relationship with fellow comedians.
“Oooooh, I’m glad you asked me that because I have bitchiness for you,” he laughed. “But, to answer your question: no. I don’t get on with all the comedians.”
“I don’t know. I often wonder if I have a persecution complex or whether it’s in my head, but I do think there are a lot of comedians who don’t like me. Guys who aren’t very happy with how quickly I have got gigs – or what they perceive to be quickly, anyway.”
Al explained that a lot of people wrongly believe that he only started doing stand-up comedy in recent years – but he’s actually been gigging since childhood.
“I don’t mind punters criticising me. If they don’t like my material, they are allowed to turn the dial on the radio, or pay for a ticket and say a gig was sh**e and tweet about it. They don’t know what I have gone through to make it, and that’s not their responsibility.
“But other people in the business should know that I am working my ass off. They weren’t handed anything on a plate and I absolutely wasn’t either, so it annoys me because they should know better. I’m like, ‘Ah lads! You know how hard I work. You do know I had no personal life for five or six years to get where I am today’.”
“I have heard rumours of backchat, and that is coming from all sorts of different people. For example, people say to me: ‘I have heard so-and-so say [things about you]’; stuff like that… I just wish we could stick to what we are doing and if you don’t like it, then just leave it be.
“Ireland is a small country, and there are very few gigs so, unfortunately, I think, in general, comedians are competitive. There is the perception that ‘your audience is stealing my audience’, but I have always lived by my mam’s advice: other people’s successes aren’t your failures,” he explained.
This year, Al was unveiled as the host for TV3’s Blind Date – but the comedian admitted that he didn’t want to be seen as ‘Mr TV3’, as he wants to remain on good terms with rival stations.
“The landscape of TV and radio is too big now to nail your colours to a mast. These days, you can’t say, ‘I am an RTÉ star’ or ‘I am a TV3 star’. People sell shows to Netflix and Amazon, and presenters move station all the time.”
Al insisted that his TV3 contract “is not disloyalty. No one can belong to anyone else,” before joking, “except Derek Mooney, who clearly just belongs to RTÉ. But loads of people are in those golden-handcuff contracts in RTÉ where you think they are dead and then they just pop back up on screen.”
Al’s attitude is a loft different compared to fellow comedian Mario Rosenstock, who recently slammed RTÉ as “classless”.
Mario worked with the station back in 2015 on The Mario Rosenstock Show, but has since said that he’s fallen out with RTÉ bosses after his show was axed.
Meanwhile, Al’s advice for Mario is, “Don’t s**t where you eat.”
“I like Mario. I will be working with him again soon. I don’t know what his personal experience was but, for me, what he said about RTÉ mismanaging talent was harsh… I feel for him, but I can tell you nothing like what Mario described has happened to me.”
