Mario Rosenstock, well known for his Gift Grub show impersonations, spoke to David Hennessy ahead of brining his show to London’s Shaw Theatre.
Mario Rosenstock is the man with a thousand voices. In the course of his chat with The Irish World, we are berated by Trump, dismissed by Roy Keane and many others- like Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, Michael Flatley, Daniel O’Donnell and Jose Mourinho- make appearances.
Since 1999, Mario’s Gift Grub has been part of the Irish consciousness. Going out on the Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show on Today FM, people have loved the impersonations and sketches featuring well known figures such as Ronan Keating, Colin Farrell as well as political figures such as then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Michael D Higgins, all voiced uncannily by Mario with the public loving the comedy of them saying ridiculous things or being put in outlandish situations.
Mario has also had chart success with the parody songs Jose and his Amazing Technicolour Overcoat and I Sign a Little Player or Two, featuring his version of Jose Mourinho. The then Chelsea manager enjoyed his work so much he had Mario come over to perform for him and the squad.
His charity single Leave Right Now, parodying Roy Keane’s exit from United, was Irish Christmas number one in 2005 and the last by an Irish artist.
He also played Roy Keane in the musical I, Keano based his acrimonious exit from the 2002 World Cup.
Mario has also featured on television with his shows Special 1 TV and The Mario Rosenstock Show.
Next month he brings his show to London for the first time bringing his show to life on the Shaw Theatre stage.
Mario took time to chat to the Irish World ahead of his upcoming London show.
How are you looking forward to coming to London?
“I can’t wait.
“I was born in London.
“I was born there and came back after about three weeks to Ireland.
“My mum was an aspiring actress in London.
“So it’s back to London.
“I want all my Irish friends to come and storm the stage and I want them to bring some of their English friends along because obviously I’ll be cognizant that I’d like to do some English material as well.
“I’m as interested in the UK political and social situation, always have been, as the Irish situation.
“I’m very, very familiar with the culture and for years there was a couple of British characters which were huge on Gift Grub.”
You mentioned more English material, would there be things like that that wouldn’t really resonate in Ireland but that you will bring for this show?
“Yeah for example during the show you’ll have various things of Boris in a field doing his latest Daily Mail column so we might have three Daily Mail columns from Boris in the show.
“And there’ll obviously be loads of football.
“I mean, Roy Keane is my most famous impression and Roy Keane is the most famous pundit.
“Mourinho, obviously, is a big character of mine.
“I do all the lads on The Overlap.
“I’d be fairly okay doing Starmer as well and I love Jacob Rees-Mogg and your Louis Walshes and your Simon Cowells and your Ant and Dec.
“All the Irish people love that because we are enmeshed, embedded in the UK culture as well.
“Football, rugby, TV, politics, we know it all.
“Although Irish people wouldn’t be so familiar with Keir Starmer or anything like that because he wouldn’t have kind of burrowed his way into their sensibilities yet like the way Boris did.
“Can’t wait.
“I’d be kind of peppering the show with English stuff so that the audience are there going, ‘Ah, I can see what he’s doing’.
“That’s the way I’ll treat it.
“A character I probably wouldn’t do on radio in Ireland but I could do it in England is something like John Bishop the comedian and stuff like that.
“There’s just loads of crossover.
“And also even characters like Daniel O’Donnell, believe it or not, are well known over there so there’s those characters as well.
“They’re kind of known as well.
“And then of course, Trump. There’s always trump.
“Everybody knows Trump, (adopts Trump) ‘The fake news David Hennessy. Failing low ratings Irish World, the radical left, lunatic scum’.
“That’s my trump. There’s all sorts of Trumps.
“My Trump is the Trump at the rally or the same Trump that talks when there’s a helicopter beside him so he has to raise his voice.”
Your impersonations have gone down really well with some of those you take off with people like Jose Mourinho and Roy Keane reaching out..
“Yeah, the Jose thing was like something out of a Carlsberg ad because one day I got a call from Simon Greenberg, Director of Communications in Chelsea, and I’m going like, ‘Is this a wind up call?’
“And he says, ‘No, Mario, the boss really loves your stuff’.
“And I went, ‘Who’s the boss?’
“’The Boss’.
“’Yeah, who’s your boss?’
“’No, the gaffer, Jose’.
“’Sorry, the gaffer?’
“’Yeah, he has your CD in the car. He drives his kids to school every day and he’s singing the song in the car’.
“’Are you serious?’
“Yeah, he’d love you to come over on Friday’.
“So I came over on Friday, did a show with the team and then at the end, Jose hands me his phone.
“Damien Duff was injured.
“He says, ‘Ring Damien, ring Damien. Do it. Ring Damien’.
“And I went, ‘Why?’
“’When he sees my phone ringing him, he’ll pick it up. You pretend you’re me and say, ‘I want you to play tomorrow’.
“And I went, ‘But he’s injured. His leg is broken’.
“’Do it’.
“So I was there, ‘Hello, Damien’
“’Jose, what’s up?’
“’I need you to play tomorrow against Everton’.
“’Gaffer, I can’t play’.
“’If you don’t play tomorrow, I’m going to sell you to Walsall for £1.5 million’.
“’Gaffer, what the f**k? Me leg is broken’.
“So we wound him up and then I had a bottle of wine with Jose, one of the nicest bottles of wine I’ve ever had in the sense that he was just lovely.
“He was like a child.
“He said, ‘I was listening to your CD and I think it’s fantastic. I love your impressions. I love when you do Mick McCarthy’.
“And then he said, ‘Do Mick McCarthy, do Mick McCarthy’.
“And then when I was starting to do Mick McCarthy, he closed his eyes like this and I went, ‘Alright, Jose..’
“And he went, ‘It is Mick McCarthy. It is Mick McCarthy’.
“He was like a kid.
“So great experiences.
“And I interviewed Roy when Roy was Roy, not when Roy was funny, cuddly Roy.
“I interviewed Roy when Roy was, ‘I’ll rip your f**king head off’ Roy so it was really nerve wracking but what was interesting was it was the first inkling I would have had that, ‘Jesus, this guy gets showbiz. This guy understands showbiz’.
“We didn’t know that before.
“He knows what he’s talking about.
“He gets showbiz.
“He just knows it.
“He’s got a great sense of comic timing.
“He’s very personally charismatic.
“That’s why he’s A list on TV, because Keane has got it.
“He’s got movie star charisma.
“People say once Keane says something, he’s trending on Twitter or whatever.
“He’s also trending on Twitter when he’s not in studio because people are actually going, ‘I wonder what Keane would have said…’
“Imagine being that f**king cool that you can trend when you’re not even there.
“They all laugh their heads off at him because he’s hilarious.
“He’s got a great sense of timing.
“He’s very telegenic as well.
“He looks good on camera and he’s just got star quality, doesn’t he?”
It must have been nerve wracking for to meet Roy with your impression of him but he was really cool with it, wasn’t he?
“He was because he was a fan of it.
“He had asked to meet me because he was fundraising for the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind so he thought that by meeting me, it could just help to generate a bit more publicity.
“That’s something he was routinely doing every year and maybe I was going to add a little extra touch to it.
“He was really nice about it.
“And apparently, he was a fan of the sketches.
“He would laugh at the sketches and stuff.
“And then a year later, he left Manchester United and I wrote a song Leave Right Now and it became number one in the Irish charts.
“It was a bit sad but very funny as well and it generated millions and millions of views.
“I’d say it raised about 100 grand, that single, for the charity which was brilliant.”
I’m sure not all your subjects have the same reaction, has anyone really not liked you doing them?
“There’s a few that are a bit icky about it.
“Flatley just doesn’t get it at all.
“He just doesn’t.
“He’s sort of like, ‘Ah be Jesus, why would anybody want to take the piss out of me? Aren’t I Ireland’s greatest ambassador?’
“I’m there like, ‘No, you don’t get it’.
“He just doesn’t get it.
“The best characters don’t get it because that’s why they’re brilliant characters because, ‘Can you not see yourself?’
“It’s that and Flatley (being like), ‘I’m more Irish than the old potato and the old sod itself’.
“And of course, he’s not.
“He’s American but he’s one of those Irish Americans who over egg it completely to the point that they don’t sound anything like Ireland or Irish or anything Irish people would say.
“That’s why I have him going on, ‘As my auld granddaddy used to say: A trout in the pot is better than a salmon in the sea but there’s no use in fearing an ill wind when your haystacks are tied down’.
“And you’re going, ‘What Irish person has ever said that in the last 300 years?’
“It’s kind of a romanticised version of Ireland which is just ridiculous, the kind of Ireland that Trump would recognise. He would think that’s Ireland.”
I was expecting you to speak about politicians..
“No.
“When you go into politics, you know that politicians are hated.
“You know that politicians are going to get a tough time.
“You also know that they should get a tough time.
“You also know that satire in a free country, which of course, there are question marks at times over the UK at the moment and what you can say and what you can’t but in a free country, satirists and comedians not only are allowed to say what they want to say, they should be encouraged to say what they say.
“So most politicians who are quite clever go, ‘I’m ready for this. This guy is going to hammer me and I’m just going to grin and bare it’.
“And as long as it’s nothing personal about their kids or family, they’re really good about it because they understand that they are legitimate targets and as long as you judge them on what they’ve been doing and their actions and what they’ve said, they’re nearly all positive about it and if they’re not, they pretend they are.
“So they get it.
“Politicians understand they are up for grabs.
“And you know what though? There’s not enough of it in Britain at the moment.
“I would ask you, where’s the satire on radio and TV at the moment?
“I know Spitting Image is on Britbox but it’s not on ITV or BBC One or BBC Two. It’s not on terrestrial TV. It’s locked away in a Britbox thing.
“Where’s the satire?
“Why aren’t people taking the piss out of politicians on TV at the moment?
“The public have always loved that.
“I’ve made a career out of this: Prime Time, 8.15am every morning.
“Imagine BBC Radio Two 8.15am every morning there was three minutes, four minutes of a sketch every morning that people waited for and wondered what he would talk about today or what the sketch would be today.
“That’s what we’ve done and we’re the biggest breakfast Show in Ireland for the last 28 years by a mile and Ian Dempsey is the most listened to breakfast presenter and you would wonder why, in a time that’s crying out for satire, where’s the satire?
“I know it’s brilliant online.
“You’re kind of going, ‘Why isn’t this being championed and put on the radio and television?’
“British people have an amazing sense of humour.
“The Brits are famous for it.
“Irish people have an incredible sense of humour.
“We love to take the piss and British people love to take the piss. They love the piss take.
“I’m just surprised there isn’t more of it at a time when it’s needed most.”
Are people too afraid now? Too afraid of causing some offence..
“Maybe.
“Somebody told me the other day that if you had a radio station now in Ireland and you said, ‘I’d like to do a thing called Gift Grub which takes the piss out of politicians every day, the management would probably go, ‘Don’t need the hassle’.
“But because I’ve been on for 26 years, I have a history so it brings in money, it’s commercially profitable and also, I’ve never been sued.
“I think people are often just afraid of the hassle they might get.
“And remember this went on the radio at 8.15am in 1999 and in 1999 there was no Instagram, there was no YouTube, there was no Facebook, there was no internet basically so I avoided all that kind of pushback.
“I’m surprised.
“There’s loads of satire in America, not so much in Britain.”
You speak of starting in 1999, I bet you never thought you would be still going more than 25 years later..
“It was a three month contract. That’s all I had and we didn’t even know if it was going down well with the public but after three months, we got a letter from government buildings with a harp on it and it said, ‘This is from the Taoiseach’s office. We would be very appreciative if you could send us some tapes of your fine work. The Taoiseach would love to listen to it’.
“And then we were, ‘Oh my god, they must be listening. Jesus. We’ve obviously caught a wind somewhere’.
“It was brilliant.”
And now you are bringing the show over here, have you long wanted to bring it to London?
“Oh listen, I’m just a cheap tart at the end of the day.
“I’m an actor and I’m a comedian.
“We all want a new audience. We all want to be loved.
“I’ve been very, very fortunate to go around Ireland, north and south all these years and still have an audience. I’m delighted.
“But as a comedian and as a sketch writer, you always look for new audiences.
“I would just love it to do well and I would love my Irish compadres to storm the Shaw Theatre and to show up for me and to go, ‘We’ve been listening to this for years. Let’s show up for this bastard’.
“I think we could fill the theatre.
“Let’s pretend this is like a Six Nations game. We’re going over there to take the points.”
Mario Rosenstock: Gift Grub is live in London at the Shaw Theatre on Saturday 7 February. For tickets and more information, click here.
