Bressie talks to Dessie: Dolan to appear on live podcast show in Athlone
Westmeath senior football manager Dessie Dolan is a special guest on Niall ‘Bressie’ Breslin’s live podcast show when it comes to the Dean Crowe Theatre in Athlone on Saturday November 18.
Bressie is taking his Where Is My Mind? podcast, which looks at managing mental health and wellbeing, to venues across the country over the coming weeks.
He said: “I have a huge amount of time for Dessie, and he’s an incredibly interesting guy as well. I played with the Westmeath U21s with Dessie, but then I kind of had to stop playing because at that stage I was going into professional rugby.
“Dessie would have been my captain with the U21s, and we’ve stayed in touch since. We’ve played a bit of golf, and I’ve done a little bit with the Westmeath (footballers).”
It’s nearly five years since Bressie started Where Is My Mind?, and he said its live shows are different to what people might expect.
“What they think it’s going to be, it absolutely isn’t,” he said. “It’s kind of an irreverent, funny and heartwarming look at the state of the little piece of meat between our ears.
“There’s music, spoken word, guests, monologues, and stuff like that. It’s kind of looking at the state of my mind, and the s**t it’s done over the years.
“The podcast can be intense at times, but the live show isn’t. It’s generally a lot of fun but people walk away with a lot in their arse pockets to think about.”
The show in the Dean Crowe Theatre will be his first in Athlone, but he was in town this summer during a week-long challenge in which he kayaked down the River Shannon and helped raise €100,000 for a youth mental health charity.
“Along the way we stopped in Athlone Boat Club. It was after Lough Ree, and we were absolutely beaten. We were just so bet down after Lough Ree, because the weather was so bad. I was never as happy to see Athlone in my entire life!”
Over his 43 years, the Mullingar man has been a musician, a professional athlete, a TV talent show coach, an author, and more recently a keynote speaker, consultant and leadership coach.
His podcast has had some high-profile guests, including Deepak Chopra, Moby, Edith Eger, Adam Clayton and Ruby Wax.
“We have had big names on it, but funnily enough the most listened-to episode was one I did with the Men’s Shed in Ballybrack, in south Dublin. I just went into the Men’s Shed and we sat together and had a chat. It was 12 men talking about their heads,” he said.
“I always say about podcasting, it’s not about big names, it’s about big stories. If you want big names, go watch TMZ or something. That’s not what I want to do.
“For some podcasts, that’s what they feed off, but I actually find sometimes that the bigger the name, the more media-trained they end up being, and the less open they are. So I find those interviews difficult.”
He said those who come along to the show in Athlone on November 18 will have an enjoyable night out. “You need to entertain people. It’s a show. People come out to theatres to see a show – they don’t come to see two people looking at each other and talking sh**e for an hour. We need to give them more than that!
“That’s why there’s a huge music element to it. I’m a piano player and I play music compositions that I’ve developed over the years.
“People think I’m a guitarist, because I’m in a band, but actually piano is my first instrument. So I’ll be doing some nice piano compositions where we pay tribute to certain Irish voices - Michael Harding, John O’Donohue and people like that.
“Sinéad O’Connor is another incredibly important voice that I’ve been paying tribute to, and I’ve been doing that since before she passed away.
“That side of things has actually got the biggest reaction (at the shows). People don’t expect it, and they find it quite emotional,” he said.
• Bressie’s Where Is My Mind? podcast show takes place in the Dean Crowe Theatre on Saturday, November 18. Tickets, priced €25 plus booking fee, are available online here.
READ ALSO: Conor Moore to join Bressie for ‘Where is My Mind’ live