A rather bold move to try to rekindle a love of performance is reaping rewards with comedy and acting success for one West Cork woman.
BANTRY woman Breda Hegarty has many skills, though juggling may not be one of them. Which is surprising, as she’s managing to build a career in acting and comedy, all while continuing her ‘9 to 5’ role as a career counsellor.
Breda will be featuring on the small screen with Jane Seymour in the TV series Harry Wild later this year, while she is becoming a regular on the comedy stage in Dublin as she develops a career in stand-up.
Breda recently won the Dublin International Comedy Film Festival stand-up award, having only tried her hand at comedy a little over a year ago.
‘I only started stand up last year,’ said Breda, who hails from Letterlickey outside Bantry on the Durrus road.
‘I had been acting four around five years and once I had a terrible audition, so I started the stand-up to get better at acting and found I really enjoyed it. The Dublin International Comedy Film Festival announced the competition last year that they had some slots, so I said I’d give it try. It was only my fourth ever gig. ‘It went pretty quick. I started a course called ‘You Talk Funny’ with Ciaran McMahon.’
Breda started to hone her craft and this year advanced through the heats at the Comedy Film Festival stand-up all the way to winning the final at The Complex in Dublin.
The win in Dublin includes a trip to Camp Basie in New Jersey, where Breda will perform her stand-up routines.
Breda performing her comedy act on stage.
‘I tell jokes about me and my personal life. I love coming up with jokes and that writing element. Something terrible can happen but you can make something funny of it,’ says Breda. ‘I think the quote from (psychologist) Carl Rogers is true – that what is deepest in us is most universal. If a story is authentic, then it’ll be funny. My act is about everyday life so it’s about being a single woman in my 40s, about my relationship with my mother, about making an eejit of myself.’
Breda’s parents at home in Letterlickey, Sean and Patricia, haven’t yet seen her show –though she does reckon there is comedy gold yet to be mined from them. ‘I do run all my jokes past my brother James and my sister Ellen,’ said Breda. ‘I use James as a sounding board for a lot of the jokes I’m going to use. And every gig I go to, I like to make a joke that’s specific to that area or audience, and I’ll go and try the joke with him first.’
Comedy wasn’t the first calling for Breda. The stand-up routines developed from Breda’s passion for acting.
‘I always wanted to act. I used to put on little comedy sketches in national school in fifth and sixth class. I used to do Frank Spencer impressions, mimicking him. But a career in acting never seemed like an option for someone like me.’
Breda’s educational path took her in a different direction, but it was only in her role as a careers councillor that she recaptured the acting bug.
‘I work with refugees and asylum seekers, and some of the clients wanted to be actors. I thought about it and thought I can’t be a good career counsellor if I’m not living out my own dream.
‘So I started a course in acting at Bowe Street academy, and I started doing short films, and got an agent.’
Her face started to get around. Breda was the female lead in Cian Ducrot’s video for ‘All for You’. ‘I had MTV on when I was hanging out the washing at home when I saw the video on the television and I was like “Jesus there’s my face!”’
Breda on set acting. She will be appearing in four episodes of the new series of Harry Wild later this year.
Parts have followed in soaps and others TV shows, and in 2024 Breda landed a part in the fourth series of Harry Wild with Hollywood veteran Jane Seymour and Samantha Mumba. She will feature in four episodes of series four.
So between the acting and the comedy, which is the favourite? ‘I’m just enjoying both. I love acting but you’re acting out someone else’s creation. With comedy, you are the creator and the performer, so it has a different creative element,’ said Breda. ‘But comedy and acting can be sporadic anyway so I still love my own job as a careers counsellor with Business in the Community, working with vulnerable migrants.’ Indeed the stories of the clients she works with as a counsellor give Breda a chance to see an entirely different perspective.
Breda was back home in Bantry over Christmas, and even got to enjoy a stand-up gig by Kyla Cobbler at the Maritime. Breda is back at work in the day job in Dublin as well as on the comedy scene, and is performing at the Comedy Cellar at the International in Dublin on January 22nd and in a competition in Bray on January 23rd. And she’s hoping she can perform her act down south in 2025.
‘I haven’t performed in Cork yet. I suppose there’s a nervousness performing in Cork and in front of people from home but for the Comedy Film stand-up competition seven of my cousins came and that went well. So if any clubs are looking…!’
