Chris O’Dowd has cracking story about meeting his music idol

Chris O’Dowd is a regular in Hollywood movies these days but there was a time when the Roscommon man’s face was not so well known to everybody.

The Get Shorty star recently appeared on the Marc Maron podcast and told a comical anecdote about when he met one of his musical heroes – Pogues legend Shane MacGowan.

The story came about after O’Dowd revealed he sang the Christmas favourite Fairytale of New York at his audition for the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.

He explained that he did once meet the Pogues frontman, and has “one anecdote” to tell.

O’Dowd continued: “I met him maybe seven or eight years ago at some awards ceremony for some Irish thing. I was getting some award and he was getting some kind of lifetime achievement award for music.

“At one point his manager or something came over to our table and said, ‘Shane would love to meet you. He’s a big fan.’ And I was like, ‘Jesus, really? And I was like, ‘Okay’ and it was like a black tie thing and it was the end of the evening, I’d taken my jacket off, and I went over and I sat with him.

“He wasn’t very talkative so I kind of prattled on about how much I liked his vibe. And then he eventually stopped me and he says ‘I’ll have vodka and tonic please.’ He thought I was the waiter.

“Of course, at the time, I was like, ‘Oh shit!’. In retrospect I have a lot of respect for the fact that he thought I was the waiter and let me talk to him for so long, but then of course I had to go and get him his drink – in a pint glass.”

It is unlikely that many would not recognise O’Dowd now, given the funnyman’s portfolio of Hollywood movies in recent years.

However, O’Dowd was happy to see the funny side of his story, and remained full of admiration for MacGowan.

Elsewhere in the podcast, O’Dowd talks about meeting his wife, raising their young son, and life in America.

He also spoke about another famous Irish musician, Bono, and revealed he feels the U2 singer gets “too hard a time” in Ireland.

You can listen to the podcast in full below. Be aware, the WTF episode does contain some bad language.

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