Comedy star Brendan O’Carroll has revealed that his foul-mouthed Irish Mammy character Mrs Brown saved him from bankruptcy.
O’Carroll was the subject of an interesting interview by Australian television programme Sunday Night.
He opens up about his past in the moving documentary. O’Carroll spoke about his mother and his admiration for her, raising eleven children on her own, after his father died while he was still a child.
O’Carroll explained: “All I ever wanted to do was to impress me Mam, to make me Mam proud of me, and the one thing I knew I could for sure was to make her laugh.”
The funnyman grew up in Dublin in the 1960s, the youngest of eleven children. He admitted that he was raised in poverty, although he says he and his siblings didn’t realise they were poor at the time.
He left school aged just 12, and was married to his childhood sweetheart by the time he was 20. He bought a pub with his friend when he was 28, and it was then that his financial situation took a turn for the worse. His friend left town, leaving O’Carroll with a debt of more than £90,000.
Desperate to make some money, O’Carroll tried his hand at stand-up comedy, and a star was born.
However, it still wasn’t all plain sailing. In 1998, O’Carroll directed and produced a film that never made it to release. The failed project left him more than £2m in the red, and it was only thanks to everyone’s favourite Irish Mammy that he survived.
O’Carroll spoke openly and honestly throughout the documentary: “To think you’re going to go through your life without things happening to you, or things not going according to plan, that would be a ridiculous thought, that hasn’t happened to anybody, everybody fails, everybody makes a mistake.”
When asked if he personally likes his most famous character Agnes Brown, O’Carroll replied: “Agnes Brown has fed my children, she’s educated my children, she’s bought all of them a house, she’s made my friends and all those who I love very comfortable in their lives, she makes me laugh, I love Agnes Brown!”
Watch the documentary below.
More popular articles and videos
The real life mystery of what Maureen O’Hara whispered to make John Wayne look so shocked
Matt Damon winning hearts and minds with charm assault on Ireland
Action hero Tom Cruise was once attacked by an old man in a Kerry pub
Liam Neeson speaks about his late wife in emotional interview
Dating site explains why Irish men make wonderful husband material
Billy Connolly says public should ignore politicians and listen to comedians
Take a look inside Hollywood star Saoirse Ronan’s stunning Irish home