Shane Todd on "amazing" Tea With Me success ahead of huge SSE Arena live podcast
With over 300 episodes in five years, it is one of the country's top podcasts
Shane Todd is undoubtedly one of the biggest names on the Northern Irish comedy scene.
He's sold out some of the country's biggest and most famous venues, opened for huge names like Kevin Hart and recently was named in the running for Ticketmaster's Comedian of the Year.
His comedy podcast Tea With Me has become one of the most popular in NI and attracted guests from the world of comedy, music, sport and more - recently including football legend Patrice Evra.
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Five years in and over 300 episodes on, Shane and his stand-up pals are once again brigning the Tea With Me craic live to the SSE Arena with a massive show this summer.
With the demand for comedy and podcasting continuing to boom in NI, Shane chatted to Belfast Live about the success of his podcast, what fans can expect from the next live show and the "evolving" stand-up scene.
Shane said: "There's some mad stat - that I'm definitely going to get wrong - that most podcasts don't go over I think it's nine episodes.
"So once you go past maybe even a dozen episodes, you're in the top percentage of longest-running podcasts so to do five years of it is pretty mad.
"You've no idea how long stuff like this is going to last - with projects I've done before outside of stand-up, sometimes you do it for a while and maybe you lose interest but the podcast has just been that constant thing that has become a massive part of my work and life as well."
With thousands of dedicated fans who will tune in every week to listen to the podcast's new episodes, Shane wasn't sure what to expect when he decided to host his first live recording of Tea With Me.
Now he's had to add extra tickets due to demand for the SSE show coming up on May 23. For anyone that isn't sure what to expect from a live podcast, Shane and his team at One L Studios have uploaded previous Tea With Me Live shows to Youtube for fans to watch.
"I remember the first time we put on a live podcast, it was in the small room of the Limelight so that was maybe 120 people," he explained.
"At the time, it felt like a gamble because the live podcast space is still pretty new and it's still kind of uncharted a bit and it definitely was at that point.
"I just had no idea how long we would keep something like this running for - does the audience lose interest or do you kind of run out of guests but we're lucky that we have regulars such as local comics and boxers who come on a lot and people enjoy."
Shane continued: "It's different to recording the podcast in the studio and doing stand-up. It's somewhere in between both of those things.
"You're having a conversation with your friends but there just happens to be a massive audience in the room and it's a bit higher energy than a normal episode record because you want to keep people laughing and you want to keep them engaged.
"It's a different kind of buzz even from stand-up and is just something that is a little bit different."
Who will be joining Shane at the SSE show later this year still remains a mystery but he has ensured that fans will be in for a serious night of craic with stand-up, music and some special surprises thrown in the mix.
Over the last number of years, podcasting and the rising number of talented stand-ups produced across the country have catapulted the local industry, with Shane adding that it's "never been better to do stand-up locally than now".
"I've seen it change and evolve and have peaks and troughs but before the last few years, I wouldn't have even described it as a scene - it was just people who did stand up and there were a small number of regular gigs and then some bigger gigs would pop up here and there.
"But now, it really is a comedy scene and there's far more collaboration that goes on between people and everybody helps each other with what they're doing and it is one big scene where you can really be part of it.
"There's proper friendships there as well so it's almost like just going to work with your mates and so it's great."
With podcasts becoming such an integral part of people's daily routines - whether it be listening on the way to work, tuning in on their runs or unwinding at the end of the day - Shane said it is great to create that connection with listeners and thanked fans for tuning in every week.
"The connection and the rapport that I have with the audience is what allows me to do what I do at this level so it is amazing."
Shane Todd will be bringing his Tea With Me Live show to the SSE Arena Belfast on May 23, 2025
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