Jon Kenny opens up about cancer returning and 'matchmaking'

SOME might say Jon Kenny has had a lot of bad luck, but the Limerick actor and comedian feels like the luckiest man, despite his cancer returning.

“I've been very lucky. I'm sure some people would say I've had bad luck, but I think when you come out the other end of anything, I think I’ve had a lot of good luck as well, everything has worked for me,” Jon says. 

Originally from Hospital, Jon Kenny is best known as one half of the famous comic duo d’Unbelievables with Pat Shortt, as well as for his roles in The Banshees of Inisherin and Les Misérables. A jack of all trades, Jon has been an actor, a comedian, a writer and now, he’s about to make his poetry debut in Limerick. 

In the early 2000s, he was diagnosed with cancer. A couple of years later, he suffered from heart failure. 

“I had a double bypass which kind of brilliantly mended me, fixed me up and got me back on the road and then, my cancer came back again about three years ago. I was diagnosed with lung cancer and they removed the lower part of my left lung,” Jon explains. 

“That kept me going again for another while, but it came back again now last year, so, I’m just on treatment for that at the moment. But it's good the treatment is working.  It's all going well, I'm very lucky. Some shows I'm doing is just to see how my body is going to hold up doing some travel, some work and some live performances.”

Now, he says, “it’s all going in the right direction” as his cancer seems to be under control. 

This April, Jon will play in The Matchmaker, alongside Norma Sheahan - with whom he plays a myriad of characters. 

Written by John B Keane, The Matchmaker follows the efforts of Dicky Mick Dicky O Connor to make matches for the lonely and is set in rural Ireland in the 1960s.

“It’s been running for quite a long time on and off, I think it was adapted first, back in the seventies. It's performed as a two hander, myself and Norma Sheehan.  Between us, we play maybe about 30 different characters or more,” Jon explains.

“It was pre Tinder, I suppose. It was the day when people used matchmakers. And even to this day in Ireland there are matchmaking festivals. I suppose it was the precursor to the  dating website, to Tinder or whatever people use nowadays,” he says. 

In the rural Ireland of the early 60s, Jon says security was a huge part of life. 

Speaking of the play, he says: “It’s a play about relationships, sexuality, loneliness, about all those things that people probably feel a need that they need to fill a vacuum in their life, especially when it comes to relationships. It’s probably brutally honest as well for the time it was written in. In the early 60s, security for a lot of people was something that was a huge part of their lives, not wanting to end up to be alone in rural Ireland.”

A big fan of Martin McDonagh, Jon was delighted to make a cameo in The Banshees of Inisherin, the acclaimed tragi-comedy set on the west coast of Ireland.

“It was great to be asked to be part of it. I’d done West, a McDonagh play years ago. I love all his plays, I've seen all these plays, and I'm kind of a big fan, so it was lovely just to get a phone call to find out if I was available to do something in the film,” he recalls. “It was a lovely buzz on the set as well, it was really nice.”

This reporter could not help but wonder how he got on with the most adored star of the movie - Jenny, the miniature donkey.

“They're amazing, these animals. I always find animals fascinating when you see what they do with them on set and it is pretty amazing, but I didn't get much time, that donkey in that film was royalty. That donkey had it's own trailer and everything,” he laughs. “That donkey was up bloody feckin on more than Brendan Gleeson or Colin Farrell.”

Although, the miniature donkey met a tragic fate.

“Typical McDonagh, of course, kind of a cruel ending for poor donkey. He is noted for his kind of random cruelty even towards human beings. Sometimes I don't understand it, you know, but it's something he does, you know.

“I don't think McDonagh just puts these things in for shock really, I think it's a reminder of what we're probably capable of.”

At the moment, the comedian is working on his memoirs - at least, that’s what the writings seem to be for now.

“That's what I seem to be kind of drawn to at the moment. I don't really know where it's going to take me, and I'm a bit like that, I suppose. I just tend to go with the flow and see what comes out of it and where it takes me,” he says.

Jon says that sometimes even though you can have all the ideas in the world, you might need a bit of a push.

“I suppose when you're freelancing as a performer all your life, at certain times, you get fed up of pushing your way through things or towards things and you kind of get a bit weird and all. You might have an oar of ideas, and you're like ‘God, that's brilliant’, and then you just go ‘Ah, I'm kind of tired of that now’, I think it’s an Irish thing.  I probably need someone else to come in and give me a kick up in the arse and say ‘Publish them or do something with them', you know.”

This April, Jon will also take part in Limerick’s annual poetry festival, where he will read his poetry for the first time.

“It’s my first time ever reading any of my poetry in public. It’s a kind of new venture for me. I was sitting down probably writing short stories or memoirs or prose, and suddenly I just started writing poetry and I enjoyed the process of it really,” he says. “I'm looking forward to it, but I'm pretty nervous about it as well to be honest about it, I just hope that people enjoy the poetry.”

Jon Kenny will be performing The Matchmaker on April 5 at The Lime Tree Theatre in Limerick. He will also be sharing his poetry alongside Donal Ryan, on April 8 at The People’s Museum of Limerick.