Conor Moore is not an elite sportsperson, but he moves in those circles.
Not as a competitor but as a gifted comedian and impressionist of global fame, who takes off the world’s finest athletes with incredible accuracy and even has the ear of the US president.
This is the guy who has done Tiger Woods to Tiger, when they starred in a commercial together that launched a thousand quips.
He took to the stage in Cork for one leg of his current tour ‘Me, Myself and Them!’ with Roy Keane one impression away from giving him the death stare from the wings – if only to crack up the local Leeside crowd.
And, given that it’s Masters week, Moore tells you a quick one about Nick Faldo. How surreal it can be to travel in the same orbit as a whole host of sports stars.
How golf’s six–time major winner and the last European golfer to win back–to–back green jackets – as Rory McIlroy looks to emulate both achievements at Augusta this week – has a contacts book that stretches to The White House.
Faldo thought his impression of Donald Trump so good, he sent it to the US president directly.
Roy Keane in stitches as Conor Moore mimics him at a live The Overlap show
Conor Moore as former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp
Moore’s impression of stand-up comedian Tommy Tiernan is legendary
Could we see him sitting in the Oval Office with Trump and the Taoiseach of the day, hearing Trump echo Tiger’s exact words when they first met for that Nike commercial: ‘Do me…’?
Stranger things have happened.
Moore’s viral video impressions have taken him to places he scarcely imagined when he first started doing them around home in Mullingar, from the F1 paddock to The Sunday Game studio to taking the mick out of Keane in front of a live audience for The Overlap.
Or being invited to address the Ryder Cup team in camp in 2018 – impersonating all 12 players in front of the team – and then finding himself sharing a billboard with Michael Jordan.
‘That was mad because I remember SportsCentre in America then came out with a thing on the screen on the Monday or the Tuesday after or before the Ryder Cup and it had a picture of me and Michael Jordan on it.
‘And it said that Europe had brought in comedian Conor Moore and USA had brought in Michael Jordan. And it was just the kind of the dichotomy maybe of that or something. Like Jordan coming in real serious and me bringing in a comedian.
‘So there’s a picture, yeah, split screen. I remember thinking, “Wow!” Like in the last year becoming a dad, I look at what I do now more as work than I ever did because you’re like, “oh, I got to do this and make sure I do this for a long time and make sure I stay relevant” because you have a family and stuff now to look after. But before that, I don’t think I gave a thought to anything. Just bopping along, just put videos out, didn’t care.’
As for the ultimate pinch–me moment?
‘Oh, the Tiger ad. The Tiger ad was definitely like, “oh my God”. I remember kind of thinking, that’s something you’re just going to have forever. My brother kind of hit me with the thing, he goes, “He’s like Muhammad Ali”.
‘He’s up there with that level of sports star. Like the best of the best. And I remember thinking that was a real pinch–me moment. But different things, like meeting Roy Keane, doing the ads with Keane as well.
‘Again, as it goes on, the older you get, you look at things much more professionally and you’re making sure you’re doing a professional job. Back in the day when all this was happening at the start, I was just so star–struck by everybody and it was… it was magical, you know.’
Typical Keane to take up an invite to come see Moore on tour – in his native Cork.
‘It was funny, you could see the commotion in there. People spotting him in the audience. Originally he was supposed to have seats in the stalls or something in the middle. I was like, “You can’t have him sitting in the middle because they won’t look at me, they’ll all be looking at him!” But anytime I did him then you could see like half the audience would turn their head up towards him to see, was he laughing?!’
There’s only one answer to that.
If the medium is the message, sitting down to do a print interview with Conor Moore feels a bit like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. Because it’s hard to find the words to convey an impersonation of former Clare manager Ger Loughnane in a hair net living it large in New York.
But he pulls back the curtain a bit to see the regular guy pulling the levers.
Monday night at Carton House and Golf Ireland’s guest of honour is in full flow. Host Aisling O’Reilly is doing her best to keep a straight face with the set–ups when Moore has the rest of the room in a fit of giggles. Running through some of the characters from his ‘Me, Myself and Them!’ tour.
Close your eyes and it feels like Rory McIlroy has flown in from Augusta for a Masters preview. That Katie Taylor is confirming a Croke Park final fight.
Afterwards, in a quiet corner, I ask him to paint a picture of his diary, his life, right now.
‘I started touring last year,’ he says. ‘I thought it would be a good idea to tour here in Ireland because I became a dad last year. Now, it’s hard becoming a dad and then trying to tour and trying to write a whole show. So it’s been, like, a hectic year.’
Boy or girl?
‘Boy. So he was a year old on March 7. It’s been magical but it’s been, like, full on. I feel like I’ve never worked this hard.
‘We’re heading to America now for a holiday for two weeks. My wife was like, right, “We’re going there and there’s going to be no impressions, no nothing. Just you, just yourself!”’
Because, sometimes, he can’t help slipping into character. Which could be anything from the F1 paddock to the political. Sometimes, he can’t help practising Trump. Turns out he has been warned at home about putting on presidential airs.
‘Yeah, yeah. I’m like, “You’re so beautiful. You are gorgeous, right? And I am so lucky and you are so lucky because I’m so great, right? Nobody knows more about marriage than me.”
‘Oh no, it does, it wrecks her head sometimes. She laughs at some of it and then sometimes she’s like, “please stop”.
‘So that’s it at the moment, I’m touring. I’m back out on May 14 at the Olympia. I’m in Castlebar, Athlone, a few places in September. So I’m just running the tour – once people keep wanting to see it, I’ll keep going.’
On Monday in Carton, he tells a story to the audience of his first trip out to the Golf Channel for exposure after his Tiger impression was retweeted by Sergio Garcia and set him on his way. A few settlers en route to Orlando meant he felt compelled to make a joke to security about going to visit a friend for the rest of his stay – Mickey Mouse. Seeing his visa suddenly go from approved to pending was a truly sobering experience – until he charmed the Texan immigration officer with a Matthew McConaughey special – ‘alright, alright, alright…’
Michael Lyster’s passing brought the curtain down, in a way, on an era of broadcasting.
No surprise, the Sunday ritual of Gaelic games on television proved a huge inspiration to Moore.
‘Everything is born out of the GAA. I’ve just literally copied and pasted the kind of strategy or structure I use in that into soccer, into F1, into golf and it’s worked. And back then it was just so easy as well.
‘Obviously people talk about the three lads. A lot of time you hear O’Rourke, Spillane, Brolly. But Michael Lyster… it was the four lads. Michael Lyster was so important to that. And I’ll never forget, I did a gig up in Castlebar with them and it was actually Liam Sheedy, Colm O’Rourke, Brolly, Michael Lyster. And we’re at the table. And I was just looking at it last week – it’s amazing to say I was at the table with him. Like you can see the outpouring of love for him. But he reminded me that day he was the boss. He was always kind of slapping Brolly on the hand, telling him “stop, stop messing”. I couldn’t stop laughing at this. And Brolly was like “Michael keeps it all in order.” And he’d be like “Joe come on, we’re back on.” Like the content was grand and everything else but the fun that they were having and Michael being the straight man and asking me the questions, it’s just like it’s one of those pieces that I’m definitely most proud of.’
And Ger Loughnane?
‘He’s my North Star – 100 per cent. The best character. If there was only more of him. And another thing, I suppose it’s harder to get these characters because not everyone’s on the TV every week and they change the panels a lot now and also social media is an issue. Back in the day the lads could say anything and you’d barely hear about it.
‘If you didn’t buy the paper you never heard a thing about it – someone might say it to you down the pub. Nowadays you say and everyone on social media is like tweeting to you and everything else it’s so it’s much harder to be outspoken these days.’
So can you study comedy?
‘I’m literally doing it,’ he explains. ‘I’ve bought so many books on it. Because that’s my fear. Because the content is everything. The impressions, like they get you in the door, then it’s what you’re saying.
‘So at the minute I’m studying different books, the history of comedy. Eighty per cent of comedy is surprise. So when you start like learning how… for a long time I didn’t know how I made people laugh. But now I know what I’ve done – I know what a set–up and a punchline is. But up until about two years ago I didn’t. And I love actually studying it because look, it is my job at the end of the day.’
He’s beginning to sound like Keane at this point: ‘Do your job’.
Roy would be proud.
As for what’s next? He’s not one to have a five–point plan.
‘No not at all. My five–point plan is tomorrow. Or the week ahead. Just work hard. Like I didn’t plan to do an ad with Tiger or do an ad with Keane or do whatever… it’s like these things have just happened. And I kind of live by that mantra that if I get up every morning I work at it every day and I try to get better all the time and try to keep it relevant and up to date, like I won’t be left behind.
‘Because there was a thing Keane said years ago in an interview: “Always doubt yourself.” And I remember at the time thinking I didn’t agree with it and as I go on I’m like “no, no, no, it is important”. It’s good to doubt yourself to a certain degree so that you keep working hard and keep trying to get better.
‘And I think that’s what I try to do every day, every week, is just to get better at it and better at it.’
As his Trump might say: ‘The greatest impressionist ever… nobody does impressions quite like me.’
Coming to a town, an Instagram page, a YouTube channel or television screen near you.
