Fresh from the success of two hit RTE series in 2008, 'Wonder Women' and 'Working Girls' and ten sensational sell out shows at Vicar Street, Katherine Lynch brings her crazy crew of highly unusual, but nigglingly identifiable, modern Irish women to the Black Box on Saturday 28 November as part of her Diddy Diddy Dongo Tour.

Populated by a host of Katherine's larger than life creations, the live show, sometimes naughty and often spontaneous, intertwines the fantastical lives of everyone's favourite characters from both hit series.

Live and very loud on the night will be Leitrim's very own gormless gaffer Liz Hurley, travelling 'Country 'n Irish' Lino Legend, Singing Bernie Walsh, international man sponge, xenophiliac happy slapper and serial divorcee, Sheila Chic as well as more of Katherine's creations.

You cut your teeth in the drag scene in Ireland – winning Alternative Miss Ireland in the process; that must have been a steep learning curve?

It was a great stomping ground alright. It was great fun, but you certainly weren't mollycoddled; gay audiences are very quick to tell you if you are shite. It definitely helped keep me grounded as well and made me work hard to get the act right.

Did you always have a hankering to be on stage?

It all happened by accident really. Myself and Warren (Meyler, her co-wrier/creator) entered a comedy competition that went really well and we decided after that to develop these characters and see what happens. I'd literally play on any stage at the time to get more experience and improve, and all this eventually led to 'The Unbelievable Truth' and eventually to 'Working Girls'.

Were you a quiet kid at school or a bit of a nightmare?

I was an absolute lunatic at school; I think I had ADD but it wasn't diagnosed! I didn't like school at all, but I loved getting involved in the school play. At the time, I also started doing Scór comedy sketches with my Dad. As we moved from Scór na nóg to Senior Scór, the sketches got more risqué, and I began to see the positive power of comedy.

And comedy was never more important in Ireland than it is these days.

Oh God yeah, it's a reflection of how bad things are. People need to take some time off, relax and enjoy themselves… have a laugh! The last big boom in comedy was during the late 70s and 80s when things were bad and that spawned many great TV shows and characters like Bread and Del Boy… survivors but with a glint in their eye.

Speaking of survivors, your girls all seem to have that characteristic; they're all quite brave in their own way.

I think so. And it's great for me to represent all these different women in my show. And sure, who wouldn't want to know these ladies! What people seem to like about it too is that it's all-inclusive; it's not too highbrow. Everyone can relate to or understand one of the characters.

Even though you do poke fun at these characters, you do get quite deep into their psyche. You 'inhabit' them well, so that we kind of feel an empathy or sympathy for them as well as laughing at their trials and tribulations.

Well we do spend a lot of time layering the characters, their history, even how they look; it's all equally important. And we have great fun coming up with all of it, of course.

Your Patrick Kavanagh's grandniece; he'd be proud of you I think? Comedy is the new rock and roll and he and his cohorts were quite the ravers in their day?

Well the poets of his day were certainly all out rock and roll and I do think that he'd like what I'm doing.

Downtime, what's your vice?

I like just spending time with friends and family. If I know I have the chance of a little time off, I like to head to the south of France. I have a tiny studio in a little town there. I couldn't afford a place in Ireland at the time and found this little place. I love it. It's just so peaceful, a nice place to get away from it all.

I presume we'll be meeting all your girls in the Black Box next Saturday.

You can be sure you will! I haven't played in Galway in years. All the shows around the country have been great fun so far and I'm really looking forward to the Black Box show!

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