In a slightly pre-recorded show from Belfast, Patrick Kielty interviews guests introduced by his Belfast helper, Hendie. Mixing chat, stand up jokes and music the show aims to be a comedy chat show.
However it often fails for one reason - simply that Kielty is not a good interviewer. He is a very funny man and at points he excels. These points are the stand up bits where he gets to make Northern Ireland themed jokes. Here he is strong because this style of joking was always the basis for his stand up. But as an interviewer her lacks the knowledge to gently guide his guest and let them tell their stories. Instead he often has his jokes set up and works to steer the guest to a place where he can use his material or put them in a set up routine of some sort.
I remember seeing Michael Caine being interviewed by Michael Parkinson once. I'm not a Parky fan but I was gripped by Caine and barely noticed Parkinson's presence! That's a good interviewer, Kielty would have barely let Caine talk unless it was to act as straight man. Too often interviews have been pointless as Kielty fails to bring the best out of his guests. Recently - Eddie Irvine and Rupert Everett on the show together yet the show was very dull - HOW!? Worse still is occasionally you'll get a guest that is visibly annoyed by his style and the interview spins out of control as the guest doesn't play ball. At these points Kielty looks flustered and the whole thing is embarrassing to watch.
Overall this shows that funny men are not always good at doing chat shows - even if they are funny doing them it doesn't mean they can interview people well. As with Clive Anderson, you can't help feel that Kielty is only interesting is doing his jokes and many guests are wasted as a result. I loved his stand up stuff so maybe I'm expecting too much from him, but I can't help feel that his show has run for a few series only because of the novelty value of having an `Norn Ire'and' accent on UK TV. Proof, if proof were needed that stand up comics don't automatically make good chat show hosts.
