He never took success for granted. He was an entertainer of immense gifts who always stayed humble, and his humour was uniquely Irish in its warmth, irreverence and wisdom
began performing stand-up in the 1980s, Irish comedy was in a dark and dreary place. He remembered it as a time when people told “mother-in-law jokes” and not much else. “I was on a stand-up circuit that did not exist,” he would recall. “I was young and slightly insane. Here was me going around wearing TV sets around my head, riding pantomime horses. Once at a gig, I drove in on a Honda 50 … down the audience.
He was also a stage actor of considerable renown. He received raves for his turn as Bull McCabe – that haunted avatar of Ireland’s obsession with land – in Shoestring Theatre Company’s acclaimed run of John B Keane’s The Field. Many actors have portrayed the character as a clenched fist of ancient resentments. Kenny, however, located a seam of sadness in Keane’s furious anti-hero. “There is a bit of redemption in us all, maybe there was some in The Bull,” he said.
Father Ted introduced Kenny to an international audience. He had a small part as the manager of Craggy Island cinema - but it was as Jekyll and Hyde-esque Eurovision host Fred Rickwood that he seared himself into sitcom history. An incomprehensible mess off camera, as soon as the stage lights went down, Fred transformed into a super-smooth MC – a juxtaposition Kenny sold effortlessly.
“It was fairly risqué, the priest was called in,” he would recall. He explained that a routine in which he impersonated an infant in the womb had scandalised people because it dealt with the messy business of childbirth – something of a taboo in 1980s Ireland.
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