Hes crunched bones on the biggest stages of American wrestling, but when Mick Foley returns to Dublin next

month, itll be some funny bones taking a battering. PAUL FLOOD spoke to the Renaissance wrestler

Standing up for himself

he childhood wrestling fan in me is a little disappointed when Mick Foley answers the phone without so much as the sound of an angle grinder coming to rest in the background. Nor does this WWE legend have the decency to arrange that evenings family dinner with his wife out of earshot. Never meet your heroes or call them at home when theyre working through the everyday family stuff. Does he even wear his trademark wrestling clobber of a flannel shirt in real life? It all seems so homely, so far from the elbow drop onto concrete that made the man, known to a generation of fans as The Hardcore Legend, famous. Hes probably taking this call in slippers and a Slanket. But Foley has always had a bit more going on than wrestling. A committed family man with three sons and a daughter, hes also published a critically acclaimed series of memoirs, two novels, childrens books, campaigned for a variety of causes, and will be in Dublins OReilly Theatre on March 2nd with his latest stand-up show. But well get to that... I had a very physical style and sometimes when things didnt work out or even when they did there was a price to be paid, he says of his uncompromising wrestling career. But it wasnt as if I didnt understand that when I started leaping onto concrete floors. Youll see when I show up in Dublin, I walk a little slowly. I used my body as a weapon, he continues, that was where the flying through the air and somersaults and elbow drops from the ring to the concrete floor came from. The flannel shirt came from the realisation that if I wanted any success in wrestling I needed to cover up my body as much as possible. Nobody wants to see me in trunks and I didnt want to be the first to put the flaccid inner thigh on display. Which was decent of him, but what of the mad, bad and dangerous to know barnet? The hair, I guess, was a tribute to a wrestling hero of mine, Bruiser Brody. A lot of the guys had their hair kind of long, but in the 80s it was more of a blow-dried look. There werent too many guys going with that wild man, letting-nature-take-itscourse look. If hed let nature take its course in college we might have lost him to the writing career a long time before now. His professors picked up on his talent and
HERALD DUBLINER

PHOTO: Marek Isalski advised him to pursue it, but he was already a student of wrestling. At one time I would watch up to eight hours of wrestling a day, studying tapes mainly from Japan, he remembers. The deal with my family and my was, and it was in a French-speaking country that was also communist at the time. This was in 1987 when communism was still such a huge issue with the US. Its just one of the crazy periods in Foleys life that he can call on at the keyboard, and theres a novel fermenting based around the trip that he hopes to add to his output. After a career in the ring that saw him claim three WWF Championships, one TNA World Heavyweight Championship and also the first WWF Hardcore Championship, I wonder what brought him back to the relatively sedate sport of writing. WWE had a contract with HarperCollins in the US to do three books, he remembers. I was set to go first, mainly because I was the least popular of the three guys it was me, The Rock and Stone Cold {Steve Austin}. I may have been chosen as the guinea pig with the feeling that if this thing fails wed rather it failed for Mick than for Rock or Steve. There was a ghost writer who had written a good portion of his book and I just read through it and I thought it was bad. I went to the publisher and said, I think I could do this myself. So she gave me a try and I started writing away by hand. When I read it to some of the guys in the dressing room they were laughing at the places where I wanted them to laugh and wincing at the places that I wanted them to wince. And for a guy like me who pursued prowrestling mainly out of a desire to get reactions, I found a whole new lease on life. Thinking outside the ring has also pushed Foley towards stand-up, with this his second comedy tour over this side of the pond. Coming from the world that he did, I suggest that he was already half-way there.

Theres a lot of similarities between wrestling and stand-up. Timing is essential

trainer Dominic DeNucci was that Id stay in school while I was learning wrestling. So then when I got out of college I went straight to Burkina Faso for a memorable and painful tour. A random spot for a kid from East Setauket, New York to find himself. It was such a whole new world, there was poverty on such a striking level. I was performing in front of people who had no idea what pro-wrestling

SAINTS, SCHOLARS AND WRESTLERS

Sheamus OShaunessy, the pride of North Great Georges Street, might be the most famous Irish wrestler of all time, especially after winning the recent WWE Royal Rumble, but the Celtic Warrior (aka Stephen Farrelly) follows in a proud tradition of Paddys delivering the whackery. Danno OMahonys signature move the Irish Whip made the Ballydehob native World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion in 1935, a feat achieved by Sneems Steve Crusher Casey three years later. Alex The Irish Siren Breslin put the female smackdown on a few opponents during the noughties, while other Micks in Spandex include Irish Whip Wrestler Gary Bingo Ballance and New Japan Pro Wrestling stalwart, and Bray native, Fergal Prince Devitt.

There are a lot of similarities between wrestling and stand-up, he explains. Timing is essential and feeding off the crowd, seeing what works and what doesnt work, changing it as you go. Im not so polished that I can come out with a killer set and do it every night. I fully respect the guys who work that way, but thats not interesting to me. The same way a lot of guys in wrestling were doing the same promo week in and week out and getting great responses, I always felt the challenge was to come up with something different. The audience must be made up mostly of wrestling fans? It is, but I try to make it inclusive so those brave few who wander in with a boyfriend are not left out in the cold. He continues: While trying to get reactions, Im concerned with saying things of substance that will sink in and leave a lasting impression. My laughs-per-minute ratio wont be up there with the guys who do it full-time and do it well, but I do think I touch on subjects that make people think a little bit. Like what? A lot of it is autobiographical; some of it will come directly from the memoirs. It might be about American politics, which I can certainly talk about a lot more freely in Dublin. Not that Im banned from doing it in the States, its just that people in Ireland are going to be far more knowledgeable about US politics than people in the US are. Until The Rock gets that Kafka biopic off the ground, Foley can truly lay claim to being the thinking mans wrestler. But does he get hecklers, thoughtful or otherwise? Not really. In the last Irish shows I did there was a lot of random yelling, so it had the atmosphere of being a wrestling show. My family are from Cork but I know better than to say that in Dublin. I also realised that apparently you dont mention the Irish Times because they booed that too. Thats kind of like the snobby paper. His gig in Dublin last November also allowed for a surprise return to WWE. It was just one of those things, I had a comedy gig in Cork in November and I think one of my kids was looking at WWE.com and I said, Wait a second... I land in Dublin the same day theyre performing and the Cork date was the next day. So I got in touch with WWE, I said I was going to be there and asked if they wanted me to participate and they put me on as the special surprise guest referee. It was a nice day because I went up to the catering room and none of the other performers knew I was going to be there, so literally every person who walked through the door did a doubletake. After this tour theres another childrens book in the pipeline and maybe the occasional ring appearance, but he tells me his focus is on more important projects. After this tour Im really going to curtail the comedy events because I really need to be home more with my kids. I dont think Ill regret the decision to spend more time at home. Now thats a hardcore dad. For more information on Micks upcoming gig on March 2nd, see mickfoleystandup.co.uk.
HERALD DUBLINER

14

15