Ping Pong Disco is a self-styled ‘DIY collective of creatives, artists and queerdos’, which has brought its neon-soaked energy to countless venues and festivals across Ireland over the past few years. 909originals’ Emer O’Connor caught up with the collective’s Cara Parc, aka performer Madonna Kebab.
Following a sold-out smash-hit collaboration for Dublin Pride at Hang Dai, this year’s autumnal edition of the Dublin Disco All Dayer on Saturday, October 11th – tickets available here – is turning up the sparkle even more with a sequined performance by the cabaret queens of Ireland, Ping Pong Disco. Here to whet the imaginations of our 909originals readers is Cara Parc, aka Madonna Kebab – céad míle fáilte, Maighdeain Mhuire Ceaibeab!
Gura míle Émer!
For anyone living under a rock since COVID, can you explain what the big deal is with Ping Pong Disco and what you bring to a party?
Ping Pong Disco is not a cult but…it’s a big collaboration between a group of performance artists, led by Cian Kinsella, the Daddy Ping Pong, and Deirdre Griffin. The core team brings the outside world from all our experiences back to Ireland. So we’re picking and choosing the disco music, but it’s more to do with the craic, the humour, the inclusivity.
I know the words are bandied around a lot, but it is a safe space for people who are good craic. We’re almost inviting people to facilitate the craic. We do have a bit of a hippy vibe running through, but we’re true hippies, not like the fake hippies, because we actually have style, and we look after each other, and we don’t smell, ha ha.
Everybody in Ping Pong double and triples up the parts they play. Some of us went to Cosmic in Berlin or in East London and saw the craic there and understood there was a gap in the market here. We know Irish people are trademarked as the best craic, but there was definitely a gap in the dance scene here.
Things were very macho, it was very niche in different places, but there wasn’t something that was fun, playful, and sophisticated – and to a high standard too. Like, we’re up there having the craic, but it is very curated. We’ve all got a unique style, centred around inclusivity.
There is a political aspect to it, but political with a small ‘p’. I think good art should always be intrinsically political, but not specifically about politics. Like, my worst nightmare is going to a Billy Bragg concert – shoot me, no thanks.
We are queer-friendly, trans-friendly, open to all colours and races – because disco music is so inclusive. It incorporates so many different styles of music, crossovers from club, from early house, the underclasses, the gay scene. It’s the amalgamation of that that makes it so inclusive.
We’re really a bunch of gacks, clowns dressing up and encouraging people to let go of their Catholic guilt, let go of the ills of colonisation, and actually have the craic. I always say we’re freeing Ireland one nipple at a time – more nudity, more disco, more craic. Does that answer your question?
Comprehensively! I believe Ping Pong started out at All Together Now back in 2022, how did that come about? Did you know Cian and the gang long before then?
It’s quite interesting actually. The first ever Ping Pong Disco was in Cork in 2020, then we were supposed to do Altogether Now but COVID happened. I know Cian and Graham and all my other friends, Breda and the Wild Geeze, and Eddie K, through my Australian friend Gaffey, who I know from London. We met there as teenagers and hung out with drag queens, we used to do gay bingo with John Sizzle, Johnny Woo, and Amanda Pet, and they’re part of our crew now as well. We went to the East London clubs.
Cian and Gaffey met in Australia, and moved to Cork. I was in Derry, and there were people in Limerick and Belfast. Cian was the instigator of it, along with Aaron Hutchinson, the whole Kinsella family.
So how it came about was a lot of us returned to Ireland, having been in all these different places. We wanted to be home, but we had to create something to stop us from going insane – where we could have something once or twice a year where we could dance and have the craic. So that’s how it happened: Ireland via London, via Berlin, via Australia.
MC Gaffey would be the inspiration for a lot of the DIY parties – me and her used to do DIY parties in a kebab shop in London. That’s where Madonna Kebab was born, where we did our first gig. So it started in Cork in 2020, then properly in All Together Now in 2022.
I loved watching you do your ad-libbing, brilliant off-the-cuff commentary of passers by – a great start to the day – and then in for a bop in the tent. The atmosphere in that Ping Pong tent was astounding, the electricity sizzling…
It was. The craic talking was based on the Irish tradition of the county fair – and somebody literally talking shite – fused with what the drag queens in London or Berlin would do, which is throwing shade. So it was a mega mix of that, with a real Irish twist.
The feedback about Ping Pong is that people feel really invested by seeing women empowered on stage. There are a lot of women, and fem energy – there’s a lot of great masculinity too, but there’s something very powerful about us women being out there, with our breasts out, dancing, being unashamed.
I hate phones on the dancefloor, and I remember the first time, as soon as I got my tits out, everyone put away their phones. I thought to myself, ‘if that’s what it takes, then I’ll get my tits out every week’. I think people feel like, ‘oh, I’ve got permission here’, permission to go buck mad and dance around, so that’s what makes us facilitators of the craic.
Indeed, I see Ping Pong as embodying the spirit of NYC Downlow at Glastonbury. I was there once in 2013 and I was blown away by how cool the vibe was that their queens created. I felt the same when I stumbled upon you at ATN and all the gigs since.
Yes, well, Gaffey would be a member of NYC Downlow as well. She’d DJ and sing and perform for them a lot, and they definitely influenced me when we were in London as students, going to Vogue Fabrics and Dalston Superstore and all the warehouse parties in Hackney.
So, it’s about bringing a bit of that glamour back to Ireland. Not to get too heavy into the politics, but we’re still a country very divided and healing. I don’t want to sound Kum Ba Yah or happy-clappy, but dancing is healing, and dancing with other people in a space where you can let loose is super important and needed.
Very much so. I popped my head into Paddy Issues at The Complex last St. Patrick’s Day weekend—a huge venue for you – and you filled it. Give us the low-down of the various acts involved.
So, myself and Laura Lavelle were hosting.
Yeah, your costume was incredible.
Oh, I know. I get lots of Irish dancing dresses and cut them up, turn them back to front, and that’s my outfit. But they’re so beautiful, so intricate – you can buy them for a tenner in charity shops in Derry.
So, there was myself and Laura, aka Saint Patricia, one half of the Wild Geeze. The other half of the Wild Geeze is Breda Harkin – she did Joe On The Dolan. There were the Ping Pong girls – the core members – who did a few different numbers. Cian did Rump, where he just talks out of his ass as Donald Trump. We had Hannah Hoops, who is Climb The Walls Weird, who did a performance with hula hoops. I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone.
I thought the cabaret was fantastic, you were so polished as a troupe, really well done. Rolling onto June, some of the Ping Pong crew performed as Paradise Cabaret at Forbidden Fruit, with the hilariously titled Orgy Hepburn, do tell us what this entailed please?
Well, there’s the Irish contingent, the London contingent and the Australian contingent that makes up Ping Pong Disco. Harry, or Orgy Hepburn, is an absolute diva – he’s like a cross between Divine and if Jason Donovan was a big beefcake. They’re just hysterical, their song is called Bussy. Bussy is a boy pussy, and he’s like seven foot tall and terrifies everyone.
Forbidden Fruit is quite a norm festival, quite straight, and straight people are fine. I’m mostly straight myself, don’t tell anyone. It was great to see the younger people especially those who were there, walking past, saying ‘what’s going on there, who’s that?’ It was me and Marion Merry, Confirmation Name Jane, Donegal’s best drag queen – now she can throw shade. The shade she was throwing, people loved it!
At Forbidden Fruit, we also had a few acts from Holland, and it was brilliant. Create chaos and have the craic.
Deadly. So when devising these line-ups, do different acts pitch to the Ping Pong producers or how does it all come about?
Well it’s Cian and Deirdre who would curate and do a lot of it, along with myself and Graham (Cookie-Dunne) and Elysia (McMullen) and Joe. I think there are over 100 people in total who work with us, but probably a regular core of 20. Cian, Deirdre, Joe and Elysia are the producers. They would put a call out, ‘we’re doing this gig, who’s free and who’s not?’
So it’s usually just a case of who’s available, then with the core we know how to work things. Some gigs we won’t have craic talkers, and some element is not used… and then we realise that we need to have all of the elements for it to work. Deirdre would be the choreographer and Cian is the curator.
I spotted the brilliant promo video for Culture Night in Carlow, you were invited by Visual Centre for the Contemporary Arts to do a take-over?
Yes, Deirdre took it over, she made a beautiful film – the Ping Pong Girls transformed into the Panadol Girls. Deirdre, in her own words, is 17 months pregnant and I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a 17-month pregnant girl wearing a red PVC catsuit doing a sexy dance while eating popcorn, but if you were at Carlow Visual, you have – and now you’ve lived.
It seems like Carlow is a stronghold of hidden talent. TR-One, aka Eddie Reynolds, is a Carlow man, and headlined for you alongside your resident Eddie K. How did Carlow’s first late-night take-over go down?
I wasn’t actually at that one myself, I was doing a gig up in Derry, but I heard fantastic reports. Sexy Tadhg is from Carlow too. So by all accounts, the show was mighty.
I believe the Visual have been very supportive to Cian and Deirdre, and of the arts in general down there – it’s an amazing venue. The Culture Night audience, I was told, were fantastic, very enthusiastic.
The line-up for Carlow Culture Night included the likes of Tina D, a sean nós dancing drag queen from Offaly. For those not au fait, what’s the craic with Tina?
Tina is a force of nature. She was up at Derry Pride festival as well. I first met Tina before they did drag in Galway, when they were a street performer, doing the sean nós dancing on a dartboard. So basically, Tina is all the elements of classic drag and sean nós – it’s quite the fusion, a serious stew. They are a megalithic performer. Thar barr!
You mentioned earlier the outrageously gifted Sexy Tadhg, are they a regular performer for you now, part of the core?
Oh yeah, tá sí, they are definitely in the core of the Ping Pong crew in the development of their act, their talent and their success, just an absolute dote.
Obviously Tadhg joined the crew’s fun and frolics at Beyond the Pale, ATN and Electric Picnic too. I was away in Kenya and gutted I missed all but Éalú le Grá this year, but I heard so many rave reviews from revellers who popped into many of your queer cabaret events. How was your festival season of 2025? You must be almost burnt out…
It’s like ‘wax on, wax off’ – work a week, week off. It’s really important to take breaks. This year does feel like we’re a really well-oiled machine, especially at All Together Now. At our gigs now, we’re starting to see the same people up the front all the time, they’re coming every night to see us, and we got a standing ovation every night.
We used to bring people up on the stage, but now we can’t – there’s no room. So we’re making people feel really comfortable. You can see the change happening in people, and I think it’s so rewarding for, well myself, that you can look out and just see people smiling.
Although we weren’t without our issues, at EP especially, and Tadhg spoke out about it publicly…
Yes, I was shocked to learn that your performers encountered homophobia and aggression from the EP crowd. What went down?
Inside Freetown and inside We’re Topless – happy days, no bother, everything was grand. As soon as we went into the main arena, ughhh. Graham got groped right in front of me, and I got grabbed. It was just awful.
The security were nowhere to be seen, only at the top of the stages. Going through that crowd was like running the gauntlet – people laughing at us, throwing stuff. It says so much about those people, but also that there’s a lot more work to be done in this country.
It’s not just homophobia, it’s misogyny, self-hatred, self-policing. It’s kind of ‘who do you think you are dressing like that?’ People think they can treat you like a joke. We’re working here – leave space for everybody. You don’t have to wear a bucket hat and a North Face jacket to go to a festival.
I mean, I do find big crowds challenging anyway, being neurodiverse, I don’t mind being at the back of an arena, once I know the parameters, but there’s definitely a lot of work to be done still with young and old.
It wasn’t just the young; there was a strata of older middle-aged people too. Sometimes it’s a bit of that tall poppy syndrome, where people want to tear you down because you’re holding your head too high.
They say, ‘Oh what do you expect, you’re dressed like that?’ I expect a bit of f**king respect from people. It takes guts to go out dressed like this. I don’t do it for attention – I do it because I have to do it… or I’ll go mad.
I’m very fit for it, and I’m very vocal, but there are days when you just don’t have the energy for people giving you dirty looks, throwing things at you, or actually coming up and grabbing your ass – it’s not on. People are lucky I’m a pacifist. I’ll say that much.
As you said, Sexy Tadhg called it out on their Insta, calling on the organisers to protect the LGBTQ community. You encountered it personally walking around EP – did other performers encounter it within the tent while they were performing? Did you encounter any shite in your designated area?
Yes, there was a little bit. There wasn’t enough security; there was very little thought given by festival organisers to our comfort and safety.
In fact, if any organisers are reading this – what are buggies for? Are they only to carry clipboards? What about performers in eight-inch heels who have to go from one arena to another safely? What about treating your artists a bit better? And that’s for festivals in general, not all of them, but…
Have you had received any apologies from promoters and assurances guaranteeing your safety and respect on sites for next year?
No, but maybe there are conversations happening that I’m not aware of. I would hope so.
One place I’m certain you’ll have none of that disgusting behaviour is the classiest soirée on the calendar, the Dublin Disco All Dayer, where I had the fabulous pleasure of meeting you for the first time last year. What’s up your silky sleeves for 11 October, pray tell?
The gremlins are taking over the big house – it’s going to be classic Ping Pong Disco. Cian is going to be bashing out the tunes, there’ll be performances from the Ping Pong girls, and there might be a secret pop-up performance or two.
I’ll be there, probably having about 15 costume changes and perhaps a bit of craic talking, but it’s going to be disco dancing in the extreme. I’m probably going to need three or four pairs of knickers and socks because I’m going to get them soaking wet from dancing! Maybe I’ll make up a wet floor sign saying, ‘Can I have some new nags for Madonna Kebab please?!’ Messy do thoil é, messy do thoil é.
Have you got any tunes lined up that you’ve been practicing for the cabaret end of things?
I have a track I’ve written myself, called Cú, an Irish-language one. The Ping Pong Girls are in rehearsals for their big number the last few weeks. It’s always a mixture of classic disco.
I’m working on another disco track – my nephew makes my backing tracks for me, we work well together, so I’m hoping to get a few more done now. Winter is when I do lots of writing and planning. In other words, after Orlagh House. Although we always say, ‘after this gig it will calm down again’, but it never does.
Thank you so much for joining me on 909originals, and I wish you all the very best. We’ll be seeing you in all your grandeur in the ballroom on Saturday.
Gura míle maith agat, chicken nugget. Ciao!
Words by Emer O’Connor. Ping Pong Disco join a stacked lineup at Dublin Disco All-Dayer on 11 October, featuring Rahaan Ruth Kavanagh, Pablo (Fatty Fatty), Honey DJs, Belfast Music Club, Groovement Soul, Cleveland Mike, Aoife Ni Canna vs Chord Memory, and Together Soul DJs. Tickets are available here.
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