Neil Kenna is well able to deal with a nervous first dater. The Laois man is the bartender in First Dates Ireland, which returns later this week.
Neil originally planned to go on the beloved TV show as a dater before finding out they were looking for a new barman on the show. The rest, as they say, is history as we couldn’t imagine anyone else behind the bar putting the anxious daters at ease.
This season promises to bring even more sweet moments, even more shocks and even more starpower as Neil reveals that he was starstruck by one of the daters.
VIP Magazine sat down with the beloved barman to chat about life behind the camera…
Hey Neil! Talk to us about getting involved in First Dates Ireland.
Originally, during COVID, I applied to go on as a dater, and I did all the interviews. I got on, and I had my time slot, then I think two weeks beforehand, my manager said this show is looking for a bartender, so I thought jeez its hardly the same thing. I went and met with the producers of the show and from CoCo and they asked me to make a video of me making some cocktails and answering some questions. They gave me a slot on the show, so I lost my date but got something better – that was my moment of madness during COVID. [Laughs]
Do you find it hard to keep up the energy when filming back-to-back?
You know it’s what I do for a living, so you always have to have a game face on when working in hospitality, and making people feel comfortable and special. You might get a slump, but when you’re on, you’re on, and it just comes naturally.
The filming schedule will probably surprise people. How long do you work on the show for?
Five days, five long days, so you eat, sleep and breathe it for those five days. Then it seems like it is going on for so long, but then it’s over, and you are sad about it then – well, I am anyway.
Do people think this is your full-time job?
Yeah, they do. I manage a restaurant, and people come in and say, “Oh have you left the Gibson,” and I have to say “No, that’s not my real job; this is my real job, and it doesn’t pay enough to quit, sadly.” People just think you are there in the Gibson, all day every day, which is gas!
Was being on TV something you dreamed of?
No, not at all, this all came out of nowhere, I actually didn’t really know I was getting it until the day before they filmed the show. So luckily, I didn’t have time to think and panic about it, which is what I normally do. It was straight in bang, and they said this is what you do and I just went with it, that was it. When you’re doing these things, you just feed off people’s energy, and you know if you get good energy from people, you give it back.
You’re the first person the daters speak to…
I always think I have the best job, because I get them at the start before the nitty and gritty, where they get to know each other, so with me at first it’s all just butterflies and excitement and nerves, so I get to see them at the best part.
You must love putting them at ease.
Definitely, and I love that in hospitality, I am such a talker, so I love getting to know people and easing people.
Do you pick up dating tips, or are you happy to stay in the background?
I am happy enough to be floating in the background, and every date is different with people. I mean, even in reality, dating is hard, like what you are expecting to get and what you actually get are different things, what works for one person might not work for another, so I think just to go with whatever and see how it goes.
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How has your life changed since joining the show?
I’d be very well recognised now at the minute, and I work with the public, so I am seen all the time, it’s not as if I am in an office, so being recognised all the time would be the main thing.
Do you have a favourite moment from the show?
Oh god, I think at the start, there was a particular dater who I got on really well with. It was at that point where I relaxed, and I was very comfortable with what I was doing. At the start is was very dauting but when she came in and had the same energy as me, and we were just having good craic at the bar, I felt more at ease, and this is what I love to do.
Before we let you go…Mary Byrne is on the new season, where you star struck when she came in?
I was! She is just so lovely, she had such a good energy, and she looked fantastic, it took me a while because she looked completely different to how I had seen her before, she had blonde hair and everything I had to go back and go Mary Byrne! [Laughs]
First Dates Ireland returns on Thursday 29th January at 9:35pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
