COMEDY Mayo comedian stars in Storyland favourite

IN THE RUNNING Castlebar comedian Kieran Lawless (right) and fellow actor Eddie Connolly star in ‘Student Teacher’, one of the last four shows competing in RTÉ’s Storyland competition.

Mayo comedian stars in Storyland favourite


‘Student Teacher’, starring Castlebar comedian Kieran Lawless, has made it through to the next round of RTÉ’s online competition Storyland – the competition that kick-started the Hardy Bucks. The comedy show focuses on an overachieving young man who takes the teaching exams early and ends up in charge of his old class. With two webisodes under its belt, the show is now among the four most popular Storyland competitors with the Irish public and can go on to film a third instalment.  
Lawless stars as one of the students in the class. He was drafted in on the back of previous sketch and stand-up shows he had done with writer/director Giles Brody.
Commenting on the ‘Student Teacher’ experience, Lawless highlighted the fact that filming the show in Ireland has been something special. “There’s so much great comedy talent in Ireland, so we’ve been really excited to work together on something here rather than having to go to the UK for a sitcom. Especially considering that Student Teacher focuses on being a student in the West of Ireland, going on school excursions, the stress of exams, it’s very close to my own experiences growing up in Castlebar. We hope people are excited to see this third one, I think it’s our best yet.”
Well known in the Irish comedy scene after winning the Bulmers 2007 Comedy Competition, Lawless continues to gig here in Ireland and overseas, supporting the likes of Ardal O’Hanlon and PJ Gallagher. When approached about being on the show, Lawless jumped at the opportunity. “I’ve been friends with the guys making the show for a long time and I was interested to see what they’d do with an online show.” The production team have pulled out the stops, not only producing a quality show, but also introducing Irish-language subtitles for each episode and setting up interactive competitions on the show’s Facebook page. Their efforts appear to be paying off.

To watch and vote for the new webisode of ‘Student Teacher’ visit rte.ie/storyland. The two shows with the most votes get through and get to make one last episode to finish off their stories.