Irish comedian PJ Gallagher says that he would never have turned to comedy if he hadn’t been adopted.
The funnyman is in the middle of a nationwide tour alongside comedy partner Joanne McNally with their show ‘Separated at Birth: The Lighter Side of Adoption by Two Comedy Orphans’.
In it the pair explore each of their own experiences and feelings of growing up as an adopted child in Ireland.
Gallagher grew up with his adoptive parents in Dublin, but reconnected with his birth family 13 years ago in Roscommon. McNally is still yet to find her birth parents but her search has begun.
Gallagher told the Sun: “You go and look at a different life and you think, ‘What would I have done?’
“One thing is for sure, there’s no way I’d be telling jokes for a living if I hadn’t been adopted.
“Maybe my life would have been better or maybe it would have been worse. I don’t know.”
Separated at Birth: The Lighter Side of Adoption by Two Comedy Orphans has received glowing reviews from critics and audiences for the pairs’ positive and comical outlook on their lives.
Gallagher spoke about adoption, and how it can be a difficult subject for some people to discuss.
He said: “Sometimes you tell people you’re adopted and they nearly apologise to you. But for me it was grand, I know that’s not the case for everyone but for me it was.
“When you hear about adoption on the telly, it’s the likes of Davina McCall springing people on you. Then it’s all tears and really sad but in both of our cases we don’t have big sad stories. So we decided to tell our story. Just to say to people that you can be grand and have a laugh with it all.
“At the end of every single night of the show, you get ten or more people coming up to say they’ve been adopted and they say they feel it’s great to hear people talking about it normally.”
Gallagher added that he intends to take a break from stand-up comedy after this show after admitting that he is getting ‘sick of his own voice’.
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