WATCH: Exclusive interview with Waterford director as film now available on major streaming service 

As of last week, Waterford-native, Tony Kelly's comedy piece, The Hurler, has become available to watch on the major world-wide streaming service, Amazon Prime Video. 

Mr Kelly, who continues to divulge himself into the world of comedy and will be appearing at this year's All Together Now festival, told the Waterford News & Star in an exclusive interview (watch the video below) that he's delighted The Hurler has been added to the platform, adding to its previous success of being screened in cinemas across the nation. 

"'The Hurler' started as just an online series eleven years ago now, which seems kind of crazy. But I'd come back from the States as I'd been over there in film school and doing stand up and acting. I had also gone back and forth between Canada, New York and Europe, but had ended up back here with no more visa and nowhere else to go, wondering what to do," said Mr Kelly.

"I basically had nothing, but there was a pal of mine who had a camera and a microphone, while I had this character, Gar Campion, in my head," explained Mr Kelly, who added that the web series "took off in a life of its own."

Mr Kelly said frustrations were felt as promises of the series becoming a TV show, had fallen through on a few occasions, closely followed by a similar situation with the film. It was then that he decided to re-write the story to suit a play. 

"Three days after the play closed, the world closed, because Covid hit and I thought, 'oh my God, this is just jinxed' but then, suddenly 2022 rolled around and we were in production on the movie."

Mr Kelly's talents are not limited to the comedy world as he's also known for his voice work with Virgin Media and multiple podcasts but he told the News & Star that he would advise anyone thinking about going into that line of work to persevere when times get tough. 

"First of all, I would say to get the right training and don't try to be an expert straight away... there's nothing wrong with learning. There's nothing wrong with training or being an apprentice or learning your craft or paying your dues because that's really important. 

"When I was living in New York first I was living in a dorm room, which is one room with me and another guy that I didn't know. I had started doing stand up but I wasn't getting paid or might have only been getting about twenty dollars, trying to live off beans on toast. But that's the stuff you have to do, and the main thing is that if you're going through that, that you keep going," said Mr Kelly. 

Watch the full interview below.