Brendan Courtney – Man On A Mission

The Clothes Show presenter Brendan Courtney is a man who can not stop working. From the very beginning, when he started his career as a runner on The Riverdance… and ended up producing the show after 9 months, his drive and ambition has spurred him on to greater success. Bent caught up with him in between projects and asked him… what’s next?

I have my own Production Company, which I’m Creative Director of, called Giant Films and I’m presenting a new show called “I Hate My Look”. Basically a show to empower middle aged women… giving them a shot of confidence, a bit of money and take them shopping… make them feel good. Fashion has started to care about people… different shapes, different sizes and ages and that’s being reflected in the High Street and the show is positive… it’s not abusing or manipulative. 

‘Alias Ricky Gervais’ – a behind-the-scenes look at the TV series Alias, was one of Bravo TV’s highest rating shows and was produced by Brendan’s production company so, are there any other similar shows in the pipeline?
Well, we’re off to Hawaii to do a behind-the-scenes on ‘Lost’. 

That’s a bit of an exclusive for you isn’t it?
Well the same man who created Alias, JJ Abrams, created ‘Lost’ and we know him quite well so, we’re really doing a piece about him and his brilliance… and that’s for SKY 1 and it’s all quite exciting. After that we’re doing a massive series for Living, which I’m afraid I can’t go into at the moment… we’re still ironing out the details. And we do a series about football… I love that…. Me a big homosexual and I Exec Produce a grass-roots series called Football Hurts… a sort of observational, fly on the wall type documentary about AFC Wimbledon. If it’s an area that I’m really into or curious about we’ll try and develop something for TV… or somewhere 

Of all the shows that you’ve done, which would you say was your favourite?
I think my very first show in Ireland when I was 25 called Wanderlust which was an internet dating/travel show… a bit ahead of its time. It was based on Gaydar because I found out my boyfriend had been going on Gaydar to have sex… and I didn’t know what it was. But, it led to this new show that was successful in Ireland, sold to 19 countries and launched my career. 

How did the Geisha club project in London come about?
A friend of mine, who is a property developer took me to look at it and asked what I thought of the venue. He said he wanted to make it gay and if I had any ideas. Well, because we put something on 7 nights a week… and I know all the sort of underground DJs and drag acts… I thought it might be a real challenge… that’s when we came up with the title of Artistic Director. I designed the look of it, the music policy etc… but it’s not a tranny bar or drag bar… it’s welcoming and fun. The thing I’ve noticed with a lot of bars is that they’re just not friendly and the bar service is shit. Everyone who works for us is told to be hyper friendly all the time… and bar service has to be quick. 

Geisha -75 Charing Cross Road, Soho, London,