1. WHEN did you think about a career in comedy and what were your first steps into it?
We're accidental comics We were totally preoccupied playing music growing up but were always comedy, podcast and improv fans in the background. Our first steps were definitely just trying to make each other laugh in the studio when working long hours to keep our energy up.
When we started making vlogs to promote our music, we would do skits that were, in retrospect, far more entertaining than the music at that time. That made us think "hold on, I think we could have a crack at this podcast thing". It wasn't until we were nominated for a comedy award the year after we started I realised what we were doing was comedy.
2. Best gigs you've been to?
The Comedy Store, Los Angeles in 2017. I wish this was my local comedy club. The midweek show was $15 with a mystery line-up – how bad could it be right? Bill Burr, Iliza Shlesinger, Sebastian Maniscalco, Ali Wong and about 12 more huge names, front-row seats. I would pay £10 to be roasted by Bill Burr any day.
Shane Todd at Leicester Square Theatre in 2022. Shane is comedy royalty in Northern Ireland. There's something extra funny about hearing him in a theatre in Soho packed with every other NI person in London.
Jake and Amir at Leicester Square Theatre in 2018. They really encapsulate that early internet improv humour we love so much.
3. Fantasy wedding/birthday party band?
Charli XCX in part because I keep missing out on tickets to see her live thanks to her unbelievably rabid fanbase, but also because she would bring the party.
4. The record you'd take to a desert island?
Nurture by Porter Robinson, who has set the template and a high bar so many times for young people making electronic music, including us. And, for a laugh, a special by Sebastian Maniscalco. I don't know why his extremely Italian-American humour tickles me so much, but I think any Irish person who listens will start to wonder if Italians and Irish have more in common than we thought.
5. And the book you'd take to a desert island?
Wilderness Survival for Dummies. We're city boys through and through with no self-preservation skills at all.
6. Top three films?
Arrival, Hereditary and Dune, which is my platonic ideal of a film. Is it perfect? No. Is all sci-fi kind of silly? Absolutely. But I love being reminded of the scale of our galaxy and the universe, and that maybe, just maybe, there are handsome aliens out there that look like Timothee Chalamet.
7. Worst film you've seen?
Year One (2009) starring Jack Black. I remember, even at 17, thinking the world would be a better place had this movie never been made.
8. Favourite authors?
Murakami: We're both Japanophiles, so any lens onto Japanese life will always be interesting, but it's his obsession with American life that makes such an entertaining hybrid style.
Tao Lin: Such an unusual writing style that speaks to a hyper-specific age bracket of people that grew up on the early internet. It felt really refreshing when I first came across it.
9. Sport(s) you most enjoy and top team(s)?
I've been skateboarding all my life and the skate scene in Ireland is more vibrant than you would think. We're even campaigning to get a skatepark where I live now in Portrush. Favourite skate team: Palace. Favourite skateboarder: Ishod Wair.
10. Ideal holiday destination?
Biarritz, Basque Country – surfing, food, sun, lovely people, tiny airport. What's not to like?
11. Pet hates?
Use your indicators, people.
12. What's your favourite:
Dinner? Bun Chay.
Dessert? Chocolate cake.
Drink? Lager.
13. Who is your best friend and how do you know each other?
My co-host Rory. We met in primary school, age five. Clearly I clung on for dear life. He hasn't been able to get rid of me yet.
14. Is there a God?
There must be – someone's got to answer for all the paranormal stuff happening down here.
:: Cult podcast This Paranormal Life is on tour this summer with its live show The Dice of Death. Hosts Rory Powers and Kit Grier Mulvenna dig into weird and wild tales of ghosts and ghouls, of curses and conspiracies. It comes to Belfast's Empire Music Hall on August 6. Tickets from thisparanormallife.com/tour.
