CHRIS O’DOWD APPEARED on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon this week, and reminded us all exactly why we love him. The 38-year-old actor opened up his interview by explaining how glorious Gaelic Football is to Jimmy Fallon.
It’s a sport they play in Ireland, it’s played a lot by farmers – people from the countryside, very rural, very rough. Brutal but beautiful, like a big wave or having a statue fall on your nuts or something.
Chris revealed the catalogue of injuries he sustained over the years thanks to the sport.
I’ve a lot of injuries from it. Broke my nose from it. This finger’s a different size to this finger. Some different kind of uh, ankles and I’ve the skeletal structure of an old giraffe. But it’s a great sport. You should try it if you like wrestling or death.
While on the topic of sports, Chris brilliantly explained why he was living in France during the 1998 World Cup.
It’s all thanks to Gay Byrne. Chris won some tickets for a ferry to France while he was sitting in the audience of The Late Late Show and he went over with his pals on a booze cruise. So, if you happened to be in The Late Late Show audience that day back in 1998, you were in the company of Chris O’Dowd.
I went on a show, not unlike this, a show in Ireland called The Late Late Show. It’s a really long-running talk-show. They do this thing, the host does kind of an Oprah, they’ve got this stuff and everyone in the audience can have one.
It was O’Dowd’s first trip abroad and he was really exciting. He wanted to organise an excursion to Paris, but none of his friends were feeling it so he went alone.
I ended up staying for five months. It was kinda wild, I suppose, looking back on it. I thought, “Well, I’ll go see a couple of the sights then I’ll get back on the train and go home.” So, I went to the Eiffel Tower and I was walking around and I was about to hop on the train to go home and I heard “CHRIS!”
It was an Irish girl Chris had known at home (small world), and she was also planning to go home that evening but they decided to go for a drink first.
So we went out that night, we went to this cocktail bar on the Champs-Élysées and it was the wildest place I’ve ever been.
Drunk and immensely enjoying his trip, Chris asked the bar manager for a job.
He insisted to the manager that he was brilliant at making cocktails, despite the fact that he had never even tried to make one before and the manager, thinking he was an annoying drunk who would forget about their interaction, told him to return the next day for an interview.
I went in and the guy didn’t turn up. I went over and was like “Is Marco here?”, and this lady was like “No, I’m the day manager. Marco doesn’t work here during the day.” I was like, “What a dick.”
So, Chris noticed an opportunity for a new job and some revenge on Marco. It was really busy because of the World Cup and the other staff members were struggling and dropping trays of drinks all over the place.
When the day manager asked what Chris wanted, he told her, “I’m supposed to start work today!” She replied “Ugh, God. He never tells me anything. Grab a t-shirt.”
So, Chris just hopped behind the bar and started pulling pints. He noticed an Irish guy who worked there and whispered “Dude, I’ve no idea what I’m doing.” The guy offered to look after the cocktails while Chris got to grips with pouring out pints, and everything worked out just fine.
Of course Marco returned to the pub and wondered what the hell Chris was doing behind the bar.
Chris just smiled and told him, “I did the interview with Annalise.”
