Mairtin de Cogain with Gabriel Donohue at the Irish Center.
Along with saving civilization and inventing slang, the Irish apparently also created the shaggy dog story. Or, at least, perfected it.
Shaggy dog story: A long, drawn-out, meandering story characterized by a series of irrelevant incidents, culminating in a punch line that’s often an anti-climax.
Wearing a Cat in the Hat t-shirt that read, “Cool story, bro,” Mairtin de Cogain told a few of those to the audience at The Irish Center in Philadelphia on Friday, July 21, in between singing love songs from Cork, which is where de Cogain, now living in Rochester, MN, was born.
There was the one–now bear with me and please insert Cork accent where appropriate–about the lady preparing for a major event at her home who consulted “the Google of the time, Readers’ Digest” for a special dessert recipe, landing on “wibbly wobbly stuff with cream on the top, which we call jelly but you call Jello, and sprinkles.” She had no sprinkles in the house, so she sent her husband to the village to get some. Of course, like most men, he set out on his wife’s errand not quite knowing what it was he was sent to get. He wound up at the bike shop where the knowledgeable owner thought he knew. “I betcha now it’s ball bearings she’s after,” he told them man, and tossed a few in a bag which his wife scattered over top of her “wibbly wobbly” dessert.
“They all tucked into it good-o,” said Mairtin, as the audience began to chuckle. “The dentist had a field day next week.” But later that week, two women met at Mass and began talking about the celebration.
Marlene asked, “Pauline, how did you enjoy the celebration?” To which Pauline replied, “oh, after I couldn’t sleep.” Seems she was having some digestive problems which she thought might be eased if she just released a little gas. “So I bent over and let out a blast and heard a scream. And didn’t I shoot the cat!”
I just made a long story shorter, but you get the idea.
De Cogain is a two-time All-Ireland storytelling champ who translates that into an acting career (he was featured in the film, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, and has appeared off-Broadway in the one-man show, De Bogman, in which he played 20 characters). He also sings (he did a few with only his bodhran for accompaniment then was joined on stage by musician Gabriel Donohue) and is a member of the Fuschsia Band and the Mairtin De Cogain Project. He’s also a new dad. His son, Milo, is 19 weeks old,” he told the audience, “and I haven’t had a night’s sleep since he came into the world, so I’m looking forward to tonight.”
For a little bit of the Mairtin de Cogain experience, check out our videos.
