Mary Byrne – Check Me Out! Brand new production comes to Civic

THE CIVIC Theatre is pleased to present Mary Byrne, the ‘X Factor’ sensation, in her much-awaited comeback in her brand-new production, ‘Mary Byrne – Check Me Out’.

The talented Rob Murphy is directing this one-woman show, which appears to be an engaging and moving journey through Mary’s extraordinary life.

Following her triumphant Irish and UK tour of ‘Menopause: The Musical 2,’ Mary goes back to her roots to narrate her amazing journey live on stage in her own words.

She will perform some of the well-known songs that have been associated with Mary’s career thus far, such as “This Is My Life,” “This Is A Man’s World,” and “Always On My Mind.”

Today, reserve your spot for this fantastic entertainment evening! This week, we sat down with Mary from Ballyfermot to discuss ‘Check Me Out’, which runs from January 29 to February 3, as well as her career thus far.

How did the gig in the Civic come about?

What happened was when I came out of ‘The X Factor’ first, Donal Shields and some other fella whose brother is some writer (I’m brutal with names, and you can put that down; I don’t care!), asked my management at the time, which were UK-based management, if they could do a one-woman show with me, and they didn’t feel it was right at the time.

So it never happened, and I went and did ‘Dirty Dustin’ in there, which was a play about three elderly women, and it’s a comedy, and during that week that we did that, he approached my manager and Rob [Murphy] and said, “I’d still love to do Mary’s one-woman show and tell her life story.”

So the wheels got into motion, and Rob said he would write it and help bring it together, and I said, “Yeah, okay, I’ll go with that. It’s a dream of mine.”

The dream is now coming true, and I am scared. I’m on that stage on my own.

Telling a life story and telling personal things, trying to make some of them funny so that the audience will laugh. They will cry, too.

But that’s how it all came about, and it’s scary. But I feel as if another dream has been answered.

How do you prepare to perform?

A lot of people, when they’re getting up to sing, will warm their voice up.

I don’t warm my voice up; I should, but I don’t, and what I am doing backstage is shaking with nerves, praying, and asking God to give me the strength and give my voice the full power that it needs so that I can give my 100% to the people who have paid the money to come see me.

I also talk to my mother and father and ask them to walk with me and guide me in everything I do.

Then I pace up and down, I drink plenty of water, and I take a bit of honey every so often.

Then it’s sidestage, and it’s time to go on, and every part of my body is shaking. It is absolutely shaking, from my legs to my hands.

I walk out on the stage, and the music plays. I sing the first half of that song.

The adrenaline kicks in. “You’ve got it.” The nerves seem to go; they don’t leave you.

But you’re now working on adrenaline and that keeps you going.

Then the song’s over, and people are enjoying it; they start to interact with you, and that gives you peace, knowing that you’re doing a good job.

That’s how I do it.

How long has ‘Check Me Out’ been in the works?

It’s been in the works for a long time.

But this particular show that we’re doing now—it’s the same type of show, but it started last year; we were supposed to do it in September, and I ended up getting a brand new knee. So we had to put it forward to February.

So it’s in the works. From the time I was on ‘The X Factor’ until now, I’ve been following that dream.

It’s brilliant. It’s great.

When you first auditioned for ‘The X Factor’, could you have anticipated that you would achieve the level of fame that you have now?

No, I genuinely thought in the judge’s houses I was gone. When they told me I was true to the live shows, I said, “I’ll be gone after the first week, but it just kept going on and on and on.

As regards the fame, I didn’t go in for the fame. I went in hoping that even just in the auditions, Simon Cowell would say, “God, you can sing, girl!”

I would have walked away very happy then. But the fact that I got through meant that I was getting a bigger platform.

But I know I did not see or foresee what’s happened.

The fact that I’m now working on my own show? No, I didn’t see that.

But I’ve got a lot of good friends in the media, and I’ve got a lot of good friends in this business who are really happy, and it’s a hard business to be in because it’s constantly changing; you have to keep your hands in a lot of different pies.

There are people always waiting to just bring you down, and the ones that are there for you are the ones you hold on to—the ones you’ve been with for a long time.

So that’s another little tip. Stick to the ones who have your back.

What is your plan for your career after this string of performances is over?

The funny thing is, the plan for this was to see if it’s a success, and this is why we’ve only done it for a couple of nights.

It’s kind of like a trial run. The plan is to tour it and hopefully visit a lot of places in Ireland.

If we can get into Scotland and certain parts of the UK with it, regardless of whether that happens, I’m not worried about that side of it.

I really would like to tour it around Ireland because I know the people in Ireland will back me 100%.

That’s the plan; everything goes well, and the critics and people like it.

As long as the audience likes it, they get what I want to give them, and they know that it’s from my heart.

Okay, Rob has a script. He has different tools for different things, but the story is mine.

So hopefully, everything will go well. I’ve been at this for the last three years.

I want to write a novel. I have a couple of novels in my head.

So I need to sit down, and I’ve done bits of it. But I need to concentrate on that.

That’s another little project I’m working on. I’m 64 now.

I want to have all that done by the time I’m 70 and to look back at my body of work and say, “Okay, I came into this side of the business in 2010.

Look at the body of work I’ve done.

I met the Queen. I opened for Neil Diamond. That body of work is going to stand out to me.

I don’t care what anybody else thinks.

I’m going to be proud of that, because that’s what I want to do.

As long as I’m proud and my daughter’s proud, I’ll be happy.

They won’t forget Mary Byrne when she leaves the earth, I hope!

Who would you like to thank for helping your career reach this point?

There are a lot of people! First and foremost, my family, who support me 1,000%, and my nieces, Brenda, Elaine, and Diana, who were always there for me.

My sister, who had nothing but faith in me, and my brother-in-law just had the biggest faith in me ever.

The one person who stood by me and had my back all the time was my daughter Deborah; she is my rock.

Then Rob, who is such a pleasure to work with. I’d like to thank my friends and my manager, Kathy, who puts up with a lot from me.

Last but not least, I’d like to say a big thank you to Simon Cowell because he believed in me.

Louis [Walsh] gave me a huge help as well.

Cheryl and I got on like a house on fire. Dannii Minogue and I got along very well.

And of course, my parents and all those who know me got behind me and pushed me.

In general, I want to say thank you to all of you I haven’t mentioned.

I’ll never forget this, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart!