Groundhog Days Are Here Again

Big eejit

t’s pretty clear that laughter has long been a serious business for stand-up comedian Adam Burke.

Serious because the man knows the value of laughing in the face of adversity, of finding the humour in the absurd, of finding the light relief in dark times.

It’s why the man has been running the Hardy Har Comedy Club for the past 12 years, and why he founded the annual Bray Comedy Festival.

It’s also the reason Adam Burke received an Endeavour Award from Bray District Council last October, marking his sterling social work with the youth of the town, as exemplified by his chart-topping YouthPod Ireland podcast.

So, funny enough to almost make a living from it whilst finding joy offstage by helping others in his community, and being married to the beautiful mother of his three beautiful daughters and a three-week-old son who, of course, could go either way in the looks department, sure, Adam Burke has plenty of reasons to be cheerful.

And should he ever get some alone time, he can always plug into one of his childhood comic heroes, such as Billy Connolly or Rowan Atkinson, to recharge those batteries. And if they don’t quite hit the funny bone, there’s always comedy god Bill Murray, and a movie that actually gets better with each repeat viewing.

Having asked Burke to write a few words on living through this second lockdown limbo, that fateful annual event in Punxsutawney made the perfect kicking off point…

I’ve always been a casual fan of Murray’s and while I often thought of how wonderful it might be to meet the man himself, 2020 has given me (and the rest of the world) an opportunity to do one better – and that is to experience the plight of one of his very best outings and live Groundhog Day for ourselves.

Yes, 2020 has been quite the craic… if you like your craic served with a hefty side salad of anxiety, uncertainty and poxy feckin’ Zoom calls.

In a year that kicked off for me with our biggest Bray Comedy Festival to date and upcoming gigs at Vicar Street, Electric Picnic and a 12,000 strong Loco Land Festival, the sudden and hard foot-on-the-brakes that is the other ‘C’ word was about as welcome as a vegan in a steak house.

My years of experience in promoting mental health awareness and resilience-building immediately kicked into gear and before you knew it, I was training with Joe Wicks, baking with Paul Hollywood and TikTok-ing with some family from Ballymacelligott.

But on Day 2, my true, cynical self re-emerged and quickly became distraught with ‘toxic positivity’ and ‘productivity porn’, two enlightening new terms gifted to me by a friend and spirit animal in the world of ‘hang on a minute, this is a global pandemic, I’m allowed to have actual feelings and don’t have to enter into social media competitions in who is living their best life whilst involuntarily imprisoned in their home!’.

So, it was on a 5k run that I didn’t really want to do that I made a commitment to focus on myself only, and while the world scratched like zombies at the door, desperate to re-emerge into that wretched ‘new normal’ they were all talking about, I put myself in an even tighter bubble, a bubble of pure selfishness with the solitary goal of staying sane and happy.

It was a bubble of family. It was a bubble of friends. It was a bubble of work. It was of bubble of daily play time with the kids in the nearby field, of one too many takeaways, of Netflix binges and of watching a tiny bump grow and grow until eventually it popped and out came Baby number 4 in the Burke household. Just in time for Lockdown 2.0. And we all know that sequels are never as good as the original.

So, while it is daunting to think ‘Here we go again!’, think of the poor family who chose to add a screaming baby into their second lockdown.

Yet, with all joking aside (quite literally because there ain’t a comedy gig running in the whole damn country), the lock down wasn’t entirely unwelcome in my life. Yes, I’ve lost a whole year’s worth of work but I’m still able to pay my bills and for that I’m truly grateful.

Yes, I’ve not been able to stand on stage four nights a week, every week, but I’ve got to spend it with my young children and make memories with them, and for that I’m also grateful.
Yes, life threw some very unwelcome changes at me but in a humble and human attempt at taking back a bit of control, I chose to make some changes for myself – new baby, new college course, new job… and for those, again I’m incredibly grateful.

No matter how bad its’ been for me, I know it has been much worse for others. So, I have no cause to complain. I give a portion of my head space every day to the NPHET reports, to the gloomy numbers, to Trump’s latest fallacies and to the tin foil hate conspiracy theories of the internet. But then, I try to flick a switch and focus on the important stuff. Did Carol Baskin feed her husband to her tigers? What’s the funniest meme of the day on Ireland’s Simpsons Fan page? Will I get Platform or Box Burger? And why won’t somebody pick up that crying baby, I can’t hear this episode of Mr. Bean!?!!

Like all good stand up comedians, here I am making it all about me, me, me, me, me…

But what about you?

If you have struggled, be proud of your resilience and perseverance. You are still standing.

If you are still struggling, take comfort in the winds of change, they can turn at any moment. As quick as it came, the time will come where it passes.

If you have suffered loss, take comfort from what remains, take kindness in any form that it is offered, and take all the time you need to heal.

If you feel like you have lost control, own what cannot be taken from you. Eat, breathe, sleep, repeat.

And if you want to switch gears, if you want to steer towards positive change, if you want to choose to do more than see the storm out, then stay active, learn, connect with people, give to others, and live mindfully in the moment.

Whether you’ve used lockdown to build your own start-up business or to build up enough courage to get out of bed in the morning, put your feet on the floor and start your day, well done. Life is only about living, not competing.

Yes, for the meantime, it’s another Groundhog Day. And if we are living our lives by the world according to Bill Murray’s character, Phil, we can think “It’s going to be cold, it’s going to be dark and it’s going to last (us) for the rest of (our) lives!”

…or we can say,

“Hi, three cheeseburgers, two large fries, two milkshakes, and one large coke.”

For take out. Obviously.

And on a final note, to anyone who has made sacrifices to keep our world spinning as close to normal as possible – thank you!

Merry Groundhog Day everybody – and a happy (and very welcome) New Year.