Joe is from Co Meath and is probably best known for his role as Fr Damo in Father Ted, and most recently, for his appearances in Killinascully. He has two children, Danny (7) and Duanna (5), and will be performing his stand-up comedy show in Vicar Street on 7 April.

Paul spent some of his childhood in England, before moving to Dublin. A regular on the comedy circuit, he most recently appeared on our screens in the IFTA award-winning comedy series, Stew, which he also co-wrote with Paul Woodfull.

He is currently writing a comedy series for BBC called Be More Ethnic. Paul is married to Alicia, and has two children, Cal (4) and Reuben (2).

Paul on Joe Joe and I first met about 20 years ago in Captain America's. He was the lead singer in a band called Guernica, and he was there with the band's manager, Tom Cooke, and I used to work with Tom. I pulled out a toy gun and pointed it at Joe, and to my amazement, he pulled one out too, and did the same to me. So we knew we had the same sense of humour. I used to go along to Guernica's gigs, and did some comedy support slots, and I thought Joe was a great songwriter, with very original lyrics. My first impression of him was that he seemed to be a really cool guy and very funny.

When we started working together in comedy, we were hanging around most of the time and had a great laugh. Joe was more career-minded than me . . . I used to mess around all of the time. I found it easier to be part of a duo on stage, but we were definitely a bit competitive with one another. Whenever we fell out, Joe could be petty, but I was extremely petty and was more of a drama queen than him. I'd fume, then blow up, and would keep trying to justify my reasons for the argument. We'd always make up though.

When we used to go out on the pull, Joe was more successful than me because he was much better at chatting women up. He had a great ability to look riveted by what they were saying, even when his mind was elsewhere.

We had a great time working together, but we eventually veered off in different directions. Joe is fantastic at stand-up, and I really admire him for having the confidence to stand up on stage and be himself. His solo gigs are brilliant and I love the musical comedy bits. My style of comedy is more character-driven really, and I do a lot of writing for other people too.

I think Joe is one of the funniest guys I've ever met. He's a great friend, and I feel very protective of him. If anything happened in his life, I'd be straight in there offering to help. I've always felt that he was a role model for me, and we're really like brothers.

People have always said that we're very like one another, but I think that I was a real sponge and used to go on just like him.

If we haven't seen each other for a while, when we meet it's like we only saw each other yesterday. We still come together sometimes for work, and I think it would be brilliant if we did a radio show together, where we'd have great fun slagging each other, and slagging whoever called in, and doing some comedy sketches. We're like comedy supermodels though. . . we won't get out of bed for less than. . . 100 a day.

Joe on Paul When Paul and I first met, I thought he was really witty and quick, and we had great banter back and forth between us. We started doing gigs together, and had a brilliant time. We never had a script though, but we had a rough idea of what was going to happen. Paul was much more spontaneous than me . . . I was always more keen on the idea of rehearsal whereas he'd turn up and say, "Will we go and play pool?"

When we were on stage, we were a bit competitive, always trying to get the most laughs from the audience . . . we used to undermine each other really and didn't help each other out! I think the difference between our comedy is that mine is more verbal, whereas Paul's is more physical in ways. I'm more suited to stand-up, and he tends to do more character roles. Paul really makes me laugh . . . he's not one of those comedians who is really serious offstage. He loves messing with people's heads, and baffling those in authority with stupid questions. I remember when we both did a video production course, and watched a film in it, after which they asked us whether we had any questions. They were expecting us to discuss things like the symbolism in the film, and Paul was asking them questions like, "But why did your man get off the bus without paying the fare?" They thought we were really thick.

Paul is a very loyal friend and he is someone you could go to if you had a problem. He'd listen to you and give you advice, even though it would be completely ridiculous and probably wouldn't make any sense at all. We used to fall out over everything, even over words in a sketch and small amounts of money. We're both pretty dramatic in an argument, and we once fell out for ages. I think it was because we really knew how to get at each other and wind one another up. Also, we both had mad girlfriends at the time, who hated each other, so that didn't help. When we went out on the pull, Paul always attracted loads of women because he's half Sri Lankan, and they thought he was exotic looking!

When we were younger, we used to do nothing but mess and hang around together all of the time. It's harder now because we both live in different counties and have families, but we'll always be great friends and we still meet up and ring one another up.