“I am very conscious that it has to be objective. We make satirical points, but we balance it out as best we can. That becomes harder in a fractured world.”
Oliver Callan is a comedian, a satirist, a voice-over artist, a columnist, a radio presenter and a Patrick Kavanagh enthusiast. But he is also a businessman who has built his own brand and negotiates his own deals. In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, he explains why he is his own best agency, and why his diversification into multiple areas meant he was well buffered for the Covid crisis. Callan also speaks about why he focused on the niche of political satire, the role of comedy in a functioning democracy, and the impact of Ireland’s draconian libel laws on his content. Ahead of his end of the year TV show, he also speaks about the rise of Sinn Féin, the enigma of Leo Varadkar and why he will never bow to keyboard warriors.