Some clever scamp has put my entire series of Fancy Vittles from 2009/10 up on youtube. People ask to see it/get it on DVD all the time but RTE aren’t into the idea. So HERE it is online.

I'm English now!

Q: What are you up to, Higgins?

A: I’m in London for a few months, doing some work.

Q: What work, Higgins?

A: Aaaaammm. Like, writing work, this and that – trying to figure out what to write next.  I am reading a lot (currently The Dubliners by old J.J and Londoners by Craig Taylor) and also listening to Frank Ocean almost non-stop, so Lord knows what is going to happen.

Q: And can we see the fruits of your labour, Higgins?

A:Sort of.  You can read my Irish Times column, you can listen to Cathal Murray’s show on Sunday mornings to hear my radio diaries.

I’ll be on Comedy Central as part of this Stewart Lee show too. It was taped last year, so I can’t really remember it. I know I forgot the end of one of my routines and also they didn’t have make-up. J.S.

You can get Moone Boy on DVD. It’s a great series, and I’m in it playing a hairdresser. Got chocolate cake that day, will never forget it.

Q: I thought you were a goddamn comedian?

A: I know, sorry. I’m not doing much live stuff at the moment, doing a couple of shows in Dublin in early March, and the odd London one when I need to get something off my sweet rack.  Keep an eye on my twitter and live gigs page.

Q: Are you writing another book?

A:  I think the answer is yes– but not yet. I am really glad that people are enjoying ‘We have a good time…don’t we?’  Really glad is an understatement actually, what’s happened is I feel a bit more connected to the world because I said what I thought and a few people were like ‘Oh , me too!’ So, thank you for that, it’s wonderful.

My book launch!  This went down in the wonderful Gutter Bookshop on Cow’s Lane in Templebar, Dublin. The genius legend that is Ian Cudmore filmed it, as did the gentle hero Myles O’Reilly and it was edited by the clever wonder Edel McDonnell. Thank you to all who came along on the night. We genuinely did have a good time. FOR ONCE.

EXTRACTS, EXTRACTS!! READ ALL ABOUT IT…

My book is released on friday the 12th of october. Pretty great news! Unless you are one on my two sisters who’s birthday that is. Heh heh, I get all the attention once again. I win!!

Anyway, I hope you like, no, LOVE , the book. It’s a collection of funny essays. Save yourself a few bob why don’t you, and read some bits for free!

A couple of extracts have been published. One in the Irish Independent, read it right here.

And one on the great site beaut.ie read it right here

Stay cool yo!

I am pleased to announce I am writing a book. Of essays, personal and funny essays. It’s the best idea I’ve ever had and, I’m really enjoying it. It’s even better than remembering to toast pecan nuts before eating them. I signed with Hachette Ireland about a month ago and just this week have learned the correct way to pronounce Hachette. My deadline is in June and the book will be out in maybe around October. The Fall, as they say in America and Canada and Roscommon.  I am trying not to freak out and I am trying to get into and stay in a routine for the first time ever instead of being all ‘sunglasses and advil, last night was mad real’. I have yet to settle on a title. One of my sisters suggested ‘Maeve Higgins:Boning My Way To The Top, My Story’ but I like the title ‘Just Joe’ or else something referencing a poverty stricken childhood. Now, ready yourselves, I am about to say something annoying…here it comes…one of my least favourite expressions! WATCH THIS SPACE. (sorry) Here’s a photo of my notes so far.

In October, in a small room over the International Bar in Dublin, I
recorded my first stand-up album. It’s called Maeve Higgins Can’t Stop
Doing Comedy and captures a great hour of fun and banter ­with the lovely crowd who were there that evening. It’s a snapshot
into where I am, comedy wise  and my first release since
Fancy Vittles. There is no crooning, singing or humming on the album, just jokes and over-sharing, Higgins style.

You can download the album on itunes

OR see the side of this page and buyone right here. If you do so…

I will sign the album!

And wrap that baby up!

Then I will send it to you at once!

The cover! Featuring Lilly and the Boston Cream Cake our Great-grandmother used to make.

My sister Lilly has written a baking book, it’s called MakeBakeLove and you can buy it right here. Boy does she bring the cake. She brings it so bad, owwww! Let me tell you, oooh Momma, nobody be fooled into thinking they can bring it like Lilly Higgins and how she brings cake. As a lot of you know, Lilly has been writing about the food she makes for a few years now, on her blog Stuff I Make, Bake and Love. then Gill and Macmillan spotted it and cajoled her into doing a book.

Bake well? I'll say!

I did the foreword in exchange for being a tester for her recipes. I win, every time! My favourite things about the book are the photos and the clear, friendly way Lilly writes. (As  you know, she is unclear and unfriendly in real life. A real battleaxe, with a lisp).  Anyway,  my favourite recipes in book are the seed soda bread and the cream buns, look at them below and you’ll almost taste the dream. There is also an incredible recipe for a chocolate peanut butter cake on pg 12 that I urge you to make, for your own sake. Happy Baking!

MakeBakeLove has been nominated at the Irish Book Awards for ‘The International Education Services Best Irish-Published Book of the Year’  Catchy, I know! If you love Ireland and cakes, it’s your duty to vote for it, please? Just click on here. Thanks!

Cream bun (pg.74) I'm getting a tattoo of this.

Hi all! I meant to tall you about this before it was on but it started on sunday. There are six shows though, and they’ll all be  available online afterwards thanks to the wizards in Today FM. The first show features one of Ireland’s best loved and most talked about comedians, Tommy Tiernan. He talks about his love of Sonny Rollins, jazz and the improvisation therein, how it feels to be outspoken from time to time and badly done Irish ballads from his childhood.

My interview with Tommy was fun and interesting.  Get the podcast right here!

The following is some information about Amusing Notes and why I made it. Strap in!

Maeve Higgins, no stranger to radio after years of a regular spot with Ray D’arcy and the gang in Today FM every week, produces and hosts ‘Amusing Notes’ – a brand new series exploring the link between stand up comedy and music. Each show will see her discuss music with some of Ireland’s best comedians, hugely popular ones like PJ Gallagher and Ardal O’Hanlon, as well as exciting new names , like Fred Cook and, from across the water, Josie Long.

Here’s what Maeve has to say about Amusing Notes.

“I am a stand up comedian but I often wish I was a musician. It’s the same with a lot of comedians I know, most of us love music – it’s all we talk about on the road and backstage at gigs. Music inspires many of us in our writing and performances. Personally, I love soul singers and the way they tell their stories from the heart without being self conscious, I aspire to be as honest as those musicians in my stand up, but don’t always get there. Each programme in the series will have three objectives, as a fellow comedian I will talk to the guest about their standup and writing, then about the music they love and finally the link between that music and their work.”

See guys, I wrote that last bit out for the press release and it seems really dry but the guests make it good! They are listed below. I am much obliged to them for taking part and they are all my favourites.

Amusing Notes airs on Today FM every Sunday evening at 7pm, beginning with Tommy Tiernan on Sunday 23rd October.

Guest Schedule

• OCT 23 – Tommy Tiernan
• OCT 20 – Ardal O’Hanlon
• NOV 6 – Josie Long
• NOV 13 – PJ Gallagher
• NOV 20 – Fred Cooke
• NOV 27 – David O’Doherty

I’m really looking forward to supporting Fred the band next week in Galway. I think they’re great! I don’t know them personally though (alert:name-dropping ahead) one of them went to Irish college with my friend Barry. Their new album is called ‘Leaving My Empire’ and this is my favourite song from their last album ‘Go God Go.’ It’s called Good One and it is, so have a listen!

The whole gang at the end of a brilliant day!

Techically this was not a comedy show, but we had laughed a LOT making it and also watching it back. The premise of the series ‘Two For the Road’ is that a celebrity (ah, that’s me – I’m basically Ireland’s answer to Jennifer Love Hewitt fyi) and a disabled person go on an adventure, and reach some mutual understanding along the way. So I went off to Rancho las Cascades with Sinead Kane, a visually impaired solicitor from Cork.

Maeve and her hero, Calypso.

I loved Mexico, the people were so kind to us with our no-Spanish and our clumsiness on the horses, the place is also incredibly beautiful. I really loved horseriding too, even when I couldn’t see anything (part of the challenge was to take on Sinead’s visual impairment) I trusted my horse Calypso absolutely. He was so brave and good!

I’m so glad to have met Sinead and grateful to her and Yellow Asylum Films for having experienced, even just in a small way, what it’s like to be visually impaired. Find out more about Sinead here. If you’re in Ireland you can watch the episode for the next few weeks here