Our faces genuinely ached from laughing after spending the day with Pat and Faye Shortt at The Chancery Hotel, Dublin. The suite which we were based in was bubbling with joy, stories and endless amusement as the father/ daughter duo took turns slagging each other mercilessly in the glam chair – and then later in the day in front of the camera as they posed, and during our chat here, too.
“Ah, life’s too short to take too seriously; laugh at what you can, enjoy what you can, and just make the most of it,” Pat says. “Seriously, how boring would life be if we couldn’t laugh at each other?”
Between his acting and comedy career, Pat has spent the last three decades offering people solace, a chance to switch off and unwind from their lives – and now his daughter Faye is in on it too. The pair have formed an incredible double act, and are busy touring their live shows up and down the country to thousands of people. It’s been enjoyed so much, that the duo are even launching a podcast in the new year, with the same premise.
“Not many people are lucky enough to firstly be able to work with a parent, and secondly be able to say they enjoy it as much as I do. We’ve great craic together. We’ve such a lovely relationship and I’m so happy to be able to go on this adventure with my dad,” Faye told us.
“Ah sure, it’s just great, isn’t it?” Pat chimed in, before nudging his girl in the arm with a giggle.
Here, the pair chat to us about their working relationship, family life, touring together and solo projects!
We had such a gorgeous day with you both, you’re a barrel of laughs! Was it a natural progression for you both to start working together? How did that initially come about?
Pat: Well Faye was born in… [bursts into laughter]
Faye: Dad! [laughs] When Covid happened, I moved back home from Dublin where I was studying, so we were both living together in Limerick at the time. There wasn’t much going on so we started doing sketches together out the back, trying to keep ourselves occupied more than anything. Then we got offered to do RTÉ’s Comic Relief and their New Year’s Eve special. From there on, it just developed organically, and dad asked me to go on tour with him.
P: A lot of people would ask if we’ve a similar sense of humour but of course we do, living in the same house together where she grew up. She’d have been going to D’Unbelievable shows from a very young age, maybe two or three and she was in one of D’Unbelievable videos. Faye was always there, having the craic, enjoying the fun. She’d be on set or backstage, touring with me all the time. You kind of grew up with it, didn’t you? It made sense that we’d do something together.
F: Definitely!
P: Ah, it’s great fun. Every time we come off stage we still go, ‘wow, it’s getting better and better!’ It’s great, I love it.
What’s it like working together now?
F: It makes it so much easier that we’re family. When it comes to art, you’re naturally walking on eggshells with honesty and trying to give your opinion on things, but because the lines of communication are so open between us, things aren’t taken to heart and we move on quickly if we’ve two different opinions.
P: It’s constructive criticism and we understand each other so well at this stage that we don’t take it personally. When we come off stage, we can say something like, ‘go softer on that there’ or ‘do this instead’ and it’s about protecting each other as much as anything and making the show as good as it can be. We’re very alike in that sense, we’re perfectionists. We keep striving until we get something right.
Has your relationship changed since working together, how do you find that dynamic?
P: It’s better now that Faye’s living in Dublin. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but we were living together, working together, travelling together and it was too much. So now that Faye’s back in Dublin, we look forward to catching up at the weekend and after our shows. While it’s tough for Faye, travelling and working, it’s more fun.
F: It is! We’d look forward to it more. I was living at home for so long and obviously wanted to get out, but had to save as much as I could. At my age, everyone is going through that at the moment. I’m loving living in Dublin now though. I like the mix of being with the family and then going to my own space.
Pat, you’ve obviously had this career in the spotlight for a long time but when Faye was growing up, could you ever have imagined working with her or any of the kids in a professional capacity?
P: No, it never entered my radar at all! I had no idea what they wanted to do with their lives. When Faye said she wanted to go to drama school, I was absolutely shocked. We hadn’t really discussed it. She didn’t want to be seen as following in my footsteps, but I was delighted. When I saw her performing in a show in college, I knew she was a natural. At that stage I still didn’t see us working together! It really happened by default. It’s great though and some of the best things in life happen like that.
Faye, what was it like growing up with a famous dad, did you know any different?
F: To be honest, not really! Your parents are so normal to you, so no matter how many times you might see him on tv or at shows, you’re like wow this is cool but it’s just normal. I lived with it every day. It was strange in some instances but it’s all I knew. Killinaskully started off when I was on the younger side of school. It wasn’t like when I was 10 or 12, dad was well known, it had been the norm for me forever! It was pretty cool, nonetheless!
It must be a hoot at home when you all get together…
P: [Laughing] Oh it’s great craic!
F: It’s great, it really is great.
Tell us, who thinks they’re the funniest in the house – and who actually is?!
F: People think myself or dad, but my brother is the funniest!
P: He is very funny, but then so is Lily, my other daughter. She’s very funny.
F: Everyone is so different. But mum is funny as well! In such a different way to my humour though. It’s very interesting – and we’ve very different types of humour.
So are we going to get a fly-on-the-wall comedy, reality series?
F: Oh never!
P: That’s something you will never, ever see!
F: My brother, sister and mum don’t enjoy the limelight at all, they’re much more private. Mum wouldn’t enjoy anything like that. We’ve been asked before though!
As well as the paired work, you’re booked and busy at the moment with some solo projects!
P: There might be something coming up with BBC in the pipeline! I’m heading up the north to do a video with The Tumbling Paddies. They’re a fantastic band and they’ve asked me to be in their music video, which will be a lot of fun! There’s a feature film in February too but I can’t say much about that now. There’ll be a few months working on that while doing shows at the weekend with Faye. It’ll be mad, but I’m really looking forward to it all. We’re always busy! If we’re not working for someone else, we’ll create our own work.
F: We’re actually in talks at the moment for our own podcast. That’s in the works to hopefully launch early 2026.
P: It’ll be based around dad and daughter, the kind of stuff we already do and some sketches. It’s a big company doing it with us. We’re excited to see how it goes.
We’ve such a brilliant nation of comics, does it fill you with pride being so invested in that world?
P: Ah yeah, it’s great to be involved and it’s a great way to make a living if you can! Myself and Faye are lucky enough that we can make a living from it. A lot of the time, there’s a lot of young comedians starting out and it’s so hard to get onto the ladder. We’ve been doing it quite a while and we’re holding onto our position, we’re working hard at it. We never take it for granted and it’s great to be part of that gang of emerging comedians. We don’t get to see each other too often but when we get to tour festivals, it’s amazing.
F: Ireland is doing so well on the comedy front!
You told us earlier on the shoot about how your biggest fear is doing these shows, something falling flat and not getting a laugh. How do you manoeuvre through those moments?
F: I just try to make myself laugh and if I find myself funny, well then good enough. If nobody else is enjoying it, I may as well enjoy it myself!
P: You know it’s funny if it’s worked before, but it can be hard when you’re not getting feedback from the audience. That can be for various reasons. We often find if you’ve a Thursday night audience, they’re not going to go mad because they’re working the next morning, but a Friday night audience will go bananas because they’ve no work the next day, they’ll be drinking, having the craic. So you go out on the stage, one night you could get a huge reaction and the next, not as much, but you just plough on with professionalism and try to enjoy yourself. They can often be the audiences who at the end of the night give the biggest standing ovation. That’s the business! Anyone who does theatre, drama, comedy, knows you have to play off the audience.
Speaking of audiences, Pat you’ve been in this circuit a long time now between acting and comedy. Having been in some huge productions, Father Ted, D’Unbelievables, The Guard, Banshees – what do you get recognised for most?
P: It’s hard to know, and it really depends on what’s current! For years, people would shout across the road at me, ‘That’s right’ which came from a Lotto ad. For a long time, internationally mainly, I was the lad from Father Ted. Of late, everyone asks me now, ‘How’s Faye? Where’s Faye?!’ I love it as a dad, I’m very proud of her. It’s very funny now that I get recognised for Faye. Any chance you’ll come back and talk about me for a while lads?! [laughs] It’s brilliant, it shows that what we’re doing is working. Recently I had a great one after filming Banshees of Inisherin, we were flying to Australia and this man sat beside me and said, ‘You’re JonJo Devine!’ I was thinking to myself, what’s he talking about?! Then he said, ‘Oh the pub in Banshees!’ And I said, yes, Jesus, of course I am! It depends on what you’re doing.
Is there a role you look back on with the most fondness, or is that like choosing a favourite child?
P: It is a bit like choosing a kid! Father Ted, Garage, Banshees… being on Broadway, those two years of my life were incredible. D’Unbelievables of course. Recently, the character I’m doing as a TikTok star, he’s so much fun. You look back at these characters, and it’s all great.
Faye, you’ve been to drama school. Were you inspired looking at these characters growing up? What was it that made you want to go down this road too?
F: Primary school had a huge impact on me. There was a big focus on drama and arts and it had a huge influence on me, as well as dad and mum. They were always bringing me to dance or singing classes. There was a lot of that, a lot of work put in during those early years.
Now you’ve the radio show and that’s a different type of creative outlet.
F: Completely! I love it. I’ve done some work here and there and then I was offered a position. It’s been brilliant. It’s hard to get a full-time radio slot in Ireland so I’m over the moon! I’m in Monday to Thursday on Spin 103.8 and have a Saturday morning slot as well. It’s keeping me busy for sure!
Between that, the show, the podcast… it’s busy!
F: It’s such a feast or a famine! It’s more of a feast at the moment, but you’re always thinking, what if I’m left with no job in six months time? Thankfully that hasn’t happened, but as someone who’s self-employed, it’s something you always think about. I enjoy it when I have it. The more, the better!
Are you going to get to switch off and relax over the coming weeks?
F: Over Christmas I’ll be taking a week off!
P: I’m not working for a month over Christmas, two weeks before and two weeks after. Faye mentioned the podcast earlier, and actually to be honest, we’ll probably be doing a lot of work on that, prepping for the launch. Now that I think of it, there’ll be no switching off, it’ll be just changing direction!
