A New Life: Karl Broderick tells Fiona Tyrrell he never regrets leaving his advertising career to pursue his music
Karl Broderick's journey from advertising to the stage via a stint in a bear outfit is a lesson in how determination and paying attention to good old-fashioned Catholic guilt can help you fulfil your dreams.
At the tender age of 14, Broderick was pointed in the direction of a career in advertising following some aptitude tests in school. "I thought it sounded glamorous and decided to go with it," he says.
Although an avid music lover, who had been writing pop songs since his early teens, Broderick didn't see music as a career option and was convinced that advertising was what he wanted to do.
Despite leaving school with "not very good" results, which prevented him going to college, the persistent young man from Artane in north Dublin rang every advertising agency in the city looking for work. "They all said 'no' except for one that said 'maybe' so I rang them back 11 times."
Broderick wangled an interview with Eason Advertising on Middle Abbey Street and eventually got in the door on the promise of working free for three months. "My persistence was not cockiness, it was born out of fear. I knew if I didn't get something in those few months there would be another 10,000 more people coming out of school looking for work," he says.
It paid off and soon he became a paid employee working his way up in the advertising industry. Keen to advance, Broderick undertook a two-year diploma in advertising marketing by night and moved on to copy-writing. However, as his career progressed, a niggling guilt emerged. He was finding less and less time to devote to music in between work and college commitments.
"When I was a young lad, a priest came into our school and told us that God gives people talents and if you don't use them, it's a mortal sin. I always remembered this and I began to feel immensely guilty about not doing anything with my song-writing talent. At times I wished I didn't have it."
Five and a half years into his career in advertising, Broderick handed in his notice the same day he was due to hear about a promotion.
"I realised that advertising was now not just my job, it was becoming a career and any chance of writing music was slipping away. They all thought I was mad but I just had to go. I really didn't agonise over it."
Although he left the rat race in March 1995 to concentrate on song-writing, Broderick decided to write a Christmas panto and produce it with friend Alan Hughes.
His first time out as a panto writer with Little Red Riding Hood in St Anthony's Theatre in Merchant's Quay was a roaring success. In time, this success prompted the Liberty Hall Theatre to ask them to become the flagship show for its new venue.
Now their Christmas pantos, tailored to entertain children and adults alike, have a cult following and this Christmas's offering, The Lyons Tea Panto Cinderella, is Broderick's 11th panto.
In a way, Broderick has been sidetracked by panto for the past 10 years and has of late returned to his ambitions of song-writing.
He is hoping to capitalise on the success of his song Love which was chosen as Ireland's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and, aside from dealing with ugly sisters and set designers, he is also in the studio producing songs.
Despite the glamour and drama of Eurovision and Christmas pantos, the early years were not all bright lights and rock 'n' roll.
Once he left his secure advertising job, Broderick had to finance himself by taking on corporate and pub promotion work as well as working as a film extra. However, he never regretted the decision to leave advertising.
"I've never, never looked back. Not even when I was dressed up as a Bord Gáis bear handing out leaflets in the lashing rain at traffic lights and being punched and kicked by kids on their way to school. "I'd much rather do what makes me happy and if I want to buy a Mars Bar and I have enough money to buy a Mars Bar then I have riches enough."
Bookings for The Lyons Tea Panto Cinderella, which opens on December 14th can be made by contacting the box office at the Liberty Hall Theatre. Tel: 8721122. Tickets are from €20.