Katherine Ryan speaks about Irish humour and getting comedy tips from her father

Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan has spoken about her love of Irish humour and how her father gives her comedy tips – though not necessarily to her style.

She made the comments on her huge Amazon Prime series ‘Backstage With Katherine Ryan’ which sees her chatting with other comedians backstage at shows.

Ryan spent summer holidays in Ireland as a child and was struck by the difference in the way people interacted with one another in Cork compared to her home in Ontario.

While people in Canada were very PC and careful not to offend, the Irish were not worried about appearing to be offensive – and people on the receiving end very rarely took comments the wrong way.

She said: “I really enjoyed the Irish sensibility of taking the mick out of each other and being fast and being caustic and appreciating having a laugh.

“If cancel culture exists now, I feel like Canada has been woke since the day I was born in the 80s.

“I feel like I was always offending everyone, accidentally, and it wasn’t until I would go to Ireland and learn about banter without offense, that it really seemed like I had a sensibility that felt more in line with that community.”

Ryan also spoke about how her dad Finbar would give her pointers about performing in Ireland – even at this stage in her career where she has been a household name for over a decade.

She said: “When I was in Cork, “what you have to say to the audience is, growing up, we had the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit but in Cork, we had Jimmy Barry Murphy, Roy Keane and…

“I was like ‘Dad, this is not my style of comedy, please don’t workshop this with me’ but he is funny in his own way, for sure.”

Take a look at the trailer for ‘Backstage With Katherine Ryan’ below (warning strong language).

Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan speaks about Irish humour and getting comedy tips from her father

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