MY LEAVING CERT:I'VE NEVER really had a career plan. Nothing I've ever achieved has involved any great application on my part, so I don't know how useful my story is to those of you sitting the Leaving, writes KARL SPAIN

When I did my Leaving Cert in CBS Sexton Street in Limerick I already had my head well turned by extracurricular activities. We had a TV station that was broadcast in the school and I used to present a programme with a friend of mine, Conor McGrath.

I suppose that’s where my interest in comedy came from, but I didn’t really notice it myself until much later. Somehow I ended up doing applied chemistry in Limerick IT, which was called Moylish at the time. Never too sure how that came about, because I hadn’t studied chemistry for the Leaving and I don’t even remember putting it on my CAO, although I must have.

Anyway, I did the Leaving and I was so good they invited me to come back and do it again. By that stage I was working in a fast food restaurant in Limerick and liking the money. Studying for the Leaving was further down my list of priorities than buying records by Prefab Sprout and The Smiths.

I spent that year flipping burgers and mastering pool while my mother "gave me some space" to study by going to my granny's to watch Coronation Streetand drink tea. That pool table in the attic was worn away, while my books remained relatively unharmed.

One of the problems was I was tipped to achieve – when I was in primary school my parents were told that I would set the world on fire. Grand, thought everyone, that’s Karl sorted. My older brother and sister were both very academic and it was assumed I would be even better.

However, I was lazy and had no interest in school at all. By the time I got to Leaving Cert I wasn’t an A student anymore. Couldn’t apply it, isn’t that what they say?

Anyhow, I had a great time – I was in school with some very funny people who managed to have a mad time in school and still come out with great Leaving Certs. My best friend got the highest marks in the class but of course he never did a tap.

I suppose he wasn’t working until the wee hours in Burgerland; that wasn’t such a great idea. But the money was welcome in the house (not trying to sound like Frank McCourt or anything but those Prefab Sprout records don’t buy themselves).

When the last exam was over (for my friends; I had to do it all over again next year) we went into Nancy Blake’s for celebratory drink.

Nancy herself greeted us warmly and said she was looking forward to having us as customers in a few years’ time, which was a very nice way of telling us to scram.

My results won me a place back in the Senior Cycle and a year later I scrambled my way into applied chemistry at LIT. I still haven’t figured out exactly how that happened. I realised I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and after a year I dropped out.

I managed in McDonald’s for a while and then went to England to set the world on fire. Then I quickly returned and got my ass back into college. I had an epiphany in London – I was young enough to start over and that’s what I did.

I studied TV production as a mature student in Coláiste Dhúlaigh in Coolock, Dublin and that’s how I got into stand-up comedy. Like I said at the outset, I never had a plan and I still haven’t managed to apply myself to anything. The TV series sort of fell into my lap.

As for my next project? Well perhaps I'll do a series called Karl Spain Sits the Leaving (This Time It's Personal).

I think I would be prepared to take that on, but it would have to be in a girls’ school this time.