INQUIRE - Anthony Keigher/ Xnthony In Fairness

***This episode contains strong language & sexual references, it may not be suitable for all listeners***
Welcome to this week's episode of In Fairness Inquire: Roscommon Artists, a special series of our podcast dedicated to interviewing astounding creative artists that are based here at home in Roscommon. In these interviews we will be talking to actors, theatre-makers, drama facilitators, comedians, writers, directors, poets, producers, a dancer and a weaver. We will discuss how they started in their profession, obstacles they have faced, how they have been impacted by the pandemic, the importance of creativity in their lives, their influences, how they stay motivated to keep creating and most importantly how you, the listener, can support their work. We are keen to make our audiences all around the world aware of the constant stream of Roscommon-based creative work. We also hope this series will encourage some of you to support local art, recognise its necessity and maybe even pursue some creative endeavours of your own. This series comes to you thanks to the generous support of Roscommon County Council who have kindly commissioned this series and endorsed us with the necessary equipment and software to record the interviews safely and remotely during the Summer of 2021.
This week we are joined by Anthony Keigher, or Xnthony, who grew up in Roscommon and has been based in London and working in the cabaret and nightlife scene there since 2013. Anthony speaks to us openly and authentically about the practical and confident approach he takes in his work, particularly in his aim to educate his audiences in a fun, exhilarating and challenging way. Anthony uses history, music, various mediums of performances and most importantly; fun, to create memorable nightlife pop cabaret shows in nightclubs and theatres in London, with the important aim of including diversity and representation in his team. He generously shares with us his experience behind creating Confirmation, an autobiographical pop show about growing up in Roscommon, the only county in Ireland that had the majority no vote in the 2016 marriage referendum, and the abuse he suffered from a young age because of being gay. Anthony, like in a lot of his work, set out to investigate why his home county felt this way about gay marriage, and candidly shared with us about the retraumatising effects creating and staging this show caused, but also the important lessons it taught him in his own work and others’. Thank you again, Anthony, for sharing this with us and our audiences, and for creating the magnificent Confirmation which, as we will hear from this interview, did go on to inspire young budding artists. While it’s important to nurture your inner diva, Anthony also strongly believes in facilitating spaces for others’ to show off and sparkle in his community work, such as the colouring-in art exhibition he helped create with the Brothers of Charity in Roscommon and with the Legends and Legacies ball, in which he created a space for older members of the LGBTQ+ community to showcase their talent. We could talk at length about the amazing and innovative work Anthony creates, but we’ll let him say it for himself. This episode contains strong language and sexual references and may not be suitable for audiences of all ages.
Thank you so much for tuning in to this week’s episode of In Fairness Inquire: Roscommon Artists, you just heard there from Anthony Keigher AKA Xnthony, and thank you so much to him for joining us for that lovely chat. You can find Anthony on his website at www.xnthony.com or instagram and twitter @xnthony, and if you’re in London do make sure to catch his show Oliver Cromwell is Really Very Sorry when it hits our stages. You can find our podcast, In Fairness, on Acast, Spotify and Itunes, make sure to tune in next week to hear from (next week’s artist’s name, short description of them). You can hear more from us and our interviewees on our