Boiler Room on full temperature

A year ago, budding stand-up Ronan Boyle began what he initially conceived of as an open-mike night for he and his fellow funny men. That quickly blossomed into Strabane’s first comedy club, The Boiler Room, and a year on, Ronan has seen it go from strength to strength with, he hopes, no sign of letting up.

“It’s been a year this week since we opened and I couldn’t be happier,” he remarked. “At first, I wanted to begin an open mike night so that other comedians could come up and try their hands at comedy. One of our first comedians was a guy called William Thompson and, after his set, he said to me ‘that’s not an open mike night; you’ve got a comedy club here.”

A quick restructuring took place, and the monthly club began to catch fire. Helped by an army of locals, including Niall Blee, Eamon McElwee, Terry Hood and others, Ronan soon whipped The Boiler Room into one of Ireland’s most-talked about comedy venues. The fame momentum has seen some of Ireland’s best known comedians, such as Colin Geddis, Conor Keyes, Shane Todd and Mickey Bartlett grace the stage to packed audiences. The Boiler Room has proven so popular that it very quickly had to go up to two shows a month.

Ronan is thrilled with how it has been received.

“I couldn’t be happier to be honest. We’re absolutely flying. The Boiler Room is being mentioned in very high comedic circles and on every comedy podcast around so word has spread far and wide of our success. I’m being approached by other comedians looking for a spot so that speaks volumes. I can’t thank Charlie Breslin enough for giving us the opportunity to have The Boiler Room going. People have asked us to go bigger, but the room we are currently in is perfect; great acoustics, low celling, and intimate crowd it just lends itself to a comedy club!”

Ronan also paid tribute to his friend and fellow comedian Conor Keyes. He added, “I’ve learned so much in my time as a stand up, not just from going to other comedy clubs, but Conor Keyes has been a wonderful mentor. He runs the comedy club in Omagh and has shown me the ropes in terms of how to run a club smoothly and deal with any problems that may arise during an evening – and things usually do! If I had gone straight into stand up on my own, I would have died on my feet so Conor’s mentorship has been invaluable. I can’t forget either about the support my wife Orfhlaith or that Strabane has given me. We’re big laughers and know how to support local.”

The Boiler Room will be taking a small foray into a bigger sphere when they take to the Alley Stage in December for their Comedy Christmas Cracker, starring Eamon McElwee, Diona Doherty, Fintan Harvey, William Thompson, Aaron McCann and the Boyler himself!

Going forward, Ronan concluded, “Ideally, I’d love to make a career out of comedy. It’s a long process, people say it can take six-to-ten years, but I’m in no rush. I’m enjoying the process, but hope to be there by the time I reach 50.”