I Am Fighter Youtube sensation Colin Geddis is blending stand up comedy into his act and will take on the most important audience of all – the Empire Laughs Back Comedy Club on August 2.
As a design and communication student at Magee College, he made up the character Barry the Blender Henderson and posted the first video on Youtube.
“There was no thought behind it. We were making comedy videos and I happened to have a punch bag and boxing gloves and we thought ‘what can we do with these’. And Barry the Blender was born,” he said.
His videos have notched up have 3,426,007 views and Barry and pal Daniel Watson have recently posted I am Fighter Round 7, a tongue in cheek attack on Rory McIlroy, which the young golfer re-Tweeted within an hour of the video going online.
And while Barry the Blender will have a few more rounds to come, it’s the stand up that Colin is loving at the moment.
“I did my first open spot at the Empire back in September and was amazed at the end that I was still standing. I remember waiting to go on and thinking ‘what have I done’. I’ve gone on to do the 20 minute support slot and I just can’t get enough of it. Stand up is amazing because there are no limitations, you can say whatever you want. As soon as I was off stage that first time I wondered why I had never done it before,” he said.
“It’s an obsession now. I guess it’s like surfing and you get one good wave, you’d do anything to do it again. The Empire is an amazing place to perform. It’s the most important comedy club around and it’s great experience for me. Comedians from Dublin often think it’s a tough crowd but I think you have to go in aggressively and make people laugh immediately or just forget about it,” he added.
His stand up act is influenced by pop culture, TV and the internet. As he puts it, it is “social satire on a very low level.”
Colin, who went to Ballyclare High School and lives in Newtownabbey, also made an appearance on the BBC sketch show LOL and has a number of other projects in the pipeline.
“We took a break from Barry the Blender to do other things but people kept asking us to do more. We’re working on another five now and I’m going to do as much stand up as I can,” he added.
This is the first summer season for the Empire Laughs Back Comedy Club. For more info go to www.thebelfastempire.com and or follow it on Facebook at Empire Comedy Club, Belfast.
