He is one of Ireland’s most distinctive, recognisable and popular entertainers. There can be no doubt that over the past twenty years, Dustin the Turkey Vulture has brightened up TV screens, has made many people laugh (or cringe) and has brought his inimitable personality to Ireland and beyond.
With six albums under his belt, a plethora of top ten singles including a Christmas number one in December 1996 beating the Spice Girls, a run for the Irish presidency in 1997, an appearance at last year’s Eurovision representing Ireland and a recent trip to South Africa for UNICEF to see the important work going on in Kwa-Zulu with children affected by HIV/AIDS, unemployment and poverty just completed, as well as all his work on Dempsey’s Den, The Den, Den TV, Dustin’s Daily News, Nationwide… well, we’ve been lucky that he’s made time in his hectic schedule to answer questions from our Television forum members.
In this 25 minute interview he talks about his 12 year project to fix Mrs Murphy’s gate, Polish builders, Ray D’arcy (“poncy garden gnome”), Ray’s poor mammy (we don’t believe a word of it, Mrs D’Arcy!), Anne Doyle’s secret tattoo, how he broke away from his image as a “sex symbol” (his words, not mine), Meath (“it’s a kip”), his presidential plans for 2011 (”there’s room for a new bird in Áras an Uachtaráin and his name is Dustin”); his views on culchies – especially people from Cork, his friend Eoin Dempsey, going to Krystal with Snotser Galligan, his thoughts on Jedward, on the “brits” Zig and Zag, on Podge and Rodge (“let’s face it, they’re gingers, you don’t want to be seen out with a ginger”), on the Poultry Party, going back on the Late Late Toy Show and meeting Ryan Tubridy, on how he compares himself to Mark Little, the Eurovision (“I was brutal, let’s be honest!”) and so much more, not to mention his new DVD which he manages to mention a couple of times at least…
http://www.vimeo.com/7705105Dustin, appearing in HMV on Grafton Street tomorrow, Friday 20 November with Ray D’Arcy from 11 am has a new DVD out – Dustin, 20 Years a Pluckin’, which has “the best of laughs from 20 years of everyone’s favourite 12 year old” and features 90 minutes of unreleased footage, his smash hit singles “Rat Trap” with Bob Geldof, “Good Lookin’ Woman” with Joe Dolan, the classic “Christmas Tree” as well as contributions from Bob Geldof, Gay Byrne, Nicky Byrne, Louis Walsh, Zig ‘n’ Zag, Marty Whelan and Twink.
“It’s an epic, up there with Ben-Hur and Glenroe. As a pin-up it would have been easy for me to just bang out a cheapo calendar or a fitness DVD but my fans mean more to me than that so that’s why I decided to pit so much effort into what is actually a piece of art. Forget Reeling In The Years… I’ve little doubt that in years to come it’ll be on the Leaving Certificate”
If you haven’t come here via Boards.ie, you can win a copy over here. You can see the reaction (if any) to the interview over here in the TV forum.
Big thanks to Dustin for his time, to Darren from Kite Entertainment for arranging and of course to the Boards.ie members who asked questions. GO ON YA GOOD THING!!
