Actor, musician, and comedian Pat Shortt has revealed that he and his father, Christy, had “a stereotypical Irish dad-and-son relationship” and didn’t talk about “emotional stuff”.
Appearing on tonight’s episode of Museum of Me on RTÉ One, the 58-year-old Limerick funnyman, who rose to fame with the late Jon Kenny as the comedy duo D’Unbelievables, looks back on his forty-year career and opens up about his late father, who passed away aged 92 in 2023.
Pat is Sunday tonight’s guest on The Museum of Me on RTÉ One
Speaking to host Dermot Whelan, he says, “After dad passed, I got a box of stuff down from the attic. He had kept all the posters, newspaper clippings, tickets of shows I’d done.
“I knew nothing about this, and I was absolutely blown away. I found it very emotional because it said to me that he was very proud of what I was after achieving. And in some ways, taking part in Museum of Me is as much about him as it is about me.”
Shortt is the latest guest on the show which sees well-known faces revisit their past and choose significant family heirlooms to tell their story.
Pat and host Dermot Whelan
Shortt has also starred in RTÉ comedy drama Killinaskully, and the Lenny Abrahamson film Garage, as well as numerous presenting job on RTÉ entertainment programmes.
However, looking back on his career, he says the “sweet spot” was his stage show with Kenny, One Hell Of A Do.
“That was the big show that kind of really broke myself and Jon,” Shortt says. “We used to put on a show to run for a year, touring around, you know, and we’d get a year out of it. But with the popularity of One Hell Of A Do, I think we ran for three years with that show.
D’Unbelievables
“It ran and ran and ran and took us all over the world with it as well. So it was incredible. We did six months in New York with that show.”
However, it was Abrahamson’s 2007 movie Garage that proved a turning point for Shortt as it was chance to show he could do drama as well as comedy.
Asked if he was nervous about taking on the role of the tragic character of Josie in the acclaimed movie, he says, “I was, and I wasn’t. It was a great script, it was brilliant, but I never had a film hang off me before, you know, depending on me.
Anne-Marie Duff and Shortt in Garage
“There was lots of scenes in it which were Josie on his own and stuff like that, and, you know, they’re the ones you’re really nervous about. You try not to think of the gravity of that, you know, because that’ll rattle you.”
The Museum of Me, RTÉ One, 8.30pm, Sunday