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Eddie Naessens
Eddie Naessens is an Irish stand-up comedian and actor. His Flemish surname is from his great-grandfather who moved to Ireland from Ghent sometime around the end of the 19th century.

Born 1969 in Kilkenny County Kilkenny, he is the eight in a family of ten. His father, a native of County Wicklow, was stationmaster at Thomastown County Kilkenny. His mother is a native of Ballyragget, County Kilkenny.

The Family moved to Gorey County Wexford in 1971 where his father took up the post of stationmaster. Eddie was educated at CBS Gorey County Wexford, after which he moved to Dublin to train at The Dublin Theatre School.

Early Work Life

In 1987, his first acting work came in the form of a partnership with a fellow student in a Laurel & Hardy act (Naessens played Laurel). They gradually became part of the Dublin live-act scene by following the lyrics of a Leo Maguire song "The Dublin Saunter (Dublin Can Be Heaven)". Made popular by Noel Purcell the Dublin Saunter tells how 'Dublin can be heaven with coffee at eleven... '. Accordingly, Naessens and his double-act partner - Sean Oliver Reilly - went for coffee to Bewley's Grafton street each morning in character as Laurel & Hardy. This regular practice eventually led on to work offers from festival organizers, promotional companies, and RTE. Despite increasing popularity, the act split after almost three years. Naessens continued to do promotional work as different characters for another year before moving to Vigo, Spain where he spent eighteen months teaching English.

In January 1993, he moved to the Cupertino, California where he worked two jobs - one at DeAnza College dept of TV & Film, the other at a restaurant, the Good Earth. He returned to Dublin later that year, and in January 1994, began work with Down-to-Earth, a Dublin-based children's theatre company focussed on environmental issues. He toured and later directed with the company for two years; during that time he also played the title role in a play - "The Bleedin' Moon" - written by street poet Pat Tierney. The play was the stage version of Tierney's book "The Moon on My Back" - an autobiographical account of Tierney's experiences with orphanages, Christian Brother schools, detention centres, jail, intravenous drug abuse, addiction and AIDS.

First Steps in Stand-Up

Also during this time, Naessens did his first stand-up comedy gig at The International Comedy Cellar in August 1995. In September 1996, he organized The 1st Dublin Fringe Comedy Festival. The acts included Tommy Tiernan, Jason Byrne, Joe Rooney, John Henderson, and English magician and comedian Paul Zenon.

In 1997, Naessens auditioned successfully for the role of Dr. Jack Shanahan in the RTE soap 'Fair City'. His character became increasing sinister and was eventually killed off in 1999. He then moved to Australia for six-months and on returning to Ireland began training as a software engineer. A year later, 2000, he began working with a software house in Rathmines, Dublin. His time with the company was cut short. In January 2001, he was diagnosed with a recurrence of Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma (AdCC) of the salivary gland. Despite that he continued to do comedy gigs. He formed a comedy double act, Naessens & Rooney, with fellow acting student Declan Rooney. After six months working together, they were one of the four finalist acts in the RTE comedy award 2001 performed live on The Late Late show. The award eventually went to Neil Delamere. In 2002, Naessens had a twelve hour operation to remove a tumour from the base of his skull. Though successful, the surgery left him deaf in the left ear and with left-sided facial paralysis. He returned to stand up in 2004 and began writing a show about his recovery. In 2005, he began workshopping the show at the International Bar, Leicester Comedy Festival, and during a 26-date Irish and UK preview tour. The show was finally performed under the title "Little Terror" at the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it was critically well received by the Scotsman and the Stage.

Further Education

October 2005, Naessens entered Trinity College Dublin to study Philosophy. He continued to perform stand-up and began writing humorous pieces for college publications. In 2007, he was nominated for a Smedia award (National student media award) for his humorous contribution to the University Record. After receiving his BA, he was accepted to do an M.Phil in Creative Writing at the Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College Dublin.

He is currently working towards his PhD at Trinity College Dublin. He lives in Dublin, and is married with two children.