How It’s New York: Glee is about kids who love musical theatre. And who dream of someday doing it in NYC.
How It’s Irish: Damian McGinty was the kid from Celtic Thunder (now that role is sung by Daniel Furlong); he’s from Northern Ireland, and is playing an Irish boy on the show!
Damian McGinty makes his appearance on Glee tonight as Rory Flanagan, an exchange student from Ireland. He’s staying with Brittany– who thinks he’s a leprechaun! Hee.
We spoke to Damian and I’ll be reprinting that interview, which is in Irish Examiner, tomorrow when it’s online. He’s been in LA since August, and loving every minute of it. And I’ll also recap tonight’s show for you.
But in the meantime here are a few exclusives to keep you going– that are ONLY available on this site!
NYIA: What would you do if you weren’t a perforer?
Damian: I think I would be in some sort of sport, for sure. Like a physiotherapist.
NYIA: Have you forgiven showrunner Ryan Murphy for messing with your head in the fake-out before you learned you won?
Damian: oh, yeah… it was a reality show. it wasn’t actually Ryan who decided that, it was the producers who decided to tell Samuel first. It was kind of weird and mean, but it definitely made good TV. We’re really good friends now, I feel that we’ve known each other for a long time. He’s seen me at my lowest low and he’s seen me at my highest high, and now we’re working together. He always gave me criticism but it was always constructive and something I could work on. And it’s realistically the reason I’m here, why I went to work, and he kept me in, week by week. The man’s a genius, and I’ve just got so much respect for him.
NYIA: How did you feel when they gave you “Danny Boy”, which is really a song for a tenor?
Damian: I’m not going to lie, most people would say in competition, like everybody in Ireland grew up in “Danny Boy,” in Celtic Thunder, we, sang it for four years. Wasn’t particularly thrilled to get it bec it’s not … it’s a gorgeous song, don’t get me wrong, its absolutely beautiful, there’s no denying it, but Idon’t feel it’s a song that’s going to win you a competition.
NYIA: Tell me a story from your life that sounds like it could come from Glee!
Damian: There was a time when me and great friend were in a cooking class, had a little metal pencil sharpener, that fell apart, and little tiny blade lying on table, and being 13 and as stupid as we were, wewere throwing it about while cooking food, so the next thing the little tiny blade lands in a blender… it was a whole thing…my friend threw it… it just landed in the blender… we were threatened with detention, and a whole inquiry. It was blown up into so much more!
NYIA: Do you aspire to being on Broadway?
Damian: I have absolutely zero aspirations for broadway. Saying that, if an offer came in for Broadway you couldn’t say no, but to be honest, Broadway isn’t me, not the path I’m looking to go down at all, but if an offer came along I’d be very flattered and would have to sit down and think about it.
Think hard, Damian! You’d be great in a Michael Feinstein, Cheyenne Jackson kind of role!
