Despite his illustrious comedic career, Mario Rosenstock never intended to become a comedian. 

Speaking to The Anton Savage Show courtesy of NiftiBusiness, Mr Rosenstock said his main goal was to become a professional actor. 

“I had no aspirations to be a comedian,” he said. 

“I wanted to be not just an actor, but a professional actor.” 

He said he developed “the bug” for performing from a young age. 

“I saw my brother in a play while he was in boarding school and I was just totally mesmerised when the light caught him, and people would be watching him speak,” he said. 

“There's something drawing you to being the centre of attention... the man in the arena.” 

Glenroe

Mr Rosentock’s acting dreams took him to the role of Dr David Hanlon in the soap opera Glenroe in the 1990s. 

He said it’s hard to describe now just how popular the show was. 

“I remember having done even one or two episodes of Glenroe, you'd walk down the street and people would be pointing at you,” he said. 

“I remember going to McDonald's on Grafton Street and a person coming up to me [and saying], ‘What are you doing in McDonald's? Sure, you could buy McDonald's’.” 

Beyond acting

Despite his love of acting, Mr Rosenstock eventually realised he wanted to “do stuff as myself”. 

“I realised I was good at telling a story,” he said. 

“One of the chief responsibilities of an actor is to listen – if you’re not listening, you’re not acting. 

“So, what I did was I said I'm going to get better and better and better at listening.” 

Mr Rosenstock has since built a career with his stellar impressions and comedic impressions, most notably on TodayFM.

Mario Rosenstock and Tony Fenton

Most notably among his comedy is his 2005 number one Christmas song ‘Leave Right Now’ about Roy Keane – which eventually led to his friendship with the late Tony Fenton. 

“I put out the record on The Gift Grub called ‘Leave Right Now’,” Mr Rosenstock explained. 

“We put the record and made a limited 17,000 copies – all copies in Dublin and around Ireland sold out in one day. 

“The record was at number one when Tony asked me how it’s going. 

“[He said], ‘I just got eight to one for Mario Rosentock to be the Christmas number one and I had two grand on the nose’. 

“Friday comes, I’m the Christmas number one, he then collects €16,000 in cash in an envelope.” 

'The biggest bromance'

Mr Fenton eventually took Mr Rosenstock and his wife out for dinner, and a last friendship began. 

“Tony always held a special place in my heart,” Mr Rosenstock said. 

“Tony saw the shows I was doing more than anyone else, except for Ian [Dempsey]. 

“It was the biggest bromance I've ever had.” 

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Main image: Mario Rosenstock as Keano, based off Roy Keane, in 'I, KEANO', 02/02/2005. Image: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo