Rachel Galvo is a rising star not only on social media but in the comedy world too - here she chats with Édaein O' Connell about all things TikTok and discusses why dating is so different in London than in her native Dublin.
When I told my friends I was interviewing rising TikTok star Rachel Galvo, the reaction was the same every single time.
“OH MY GOD I LOVE HER,” they told me in varying volume levels, but always with the same heightened enthusiasm.
You see, Rachel is something of a social media enigma. With over 31,000 followers and counting on the video-sharing app, her humour and honesty have won her a legion of already devoted fans. From hilarious day-in-the-life vlogs to open conversations around loneliness and dating, she has blended the two to create an online home where you can have a laugh and feel seen too.
Alongside her online exploits, Rachel is a writer, actor and comedian and will soon begin touring her one-woman show The Shite Feminist later this summer. Her first performances will see her take the stage at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and then premier it in her hometown of Dublin and then London, her adopted abode.
Regularly travelling between the two cities, Rachel is a busy woman and a comedic artist on the rise. However, when you meet her in person, you joyfully realise that she is, in fact, just one of the gals.
“I think there’s something really scary about calling myself a comedian,” she tells me. “Because then it’s like ‘Oh well then, tell us a joke’ or like you’re kind of assuming that people are going to laugh and sometimes people don’t. I have done a lot of interviews recently and one of the questions that kept coming up was ‘when did you realise you were funny?’ and I’m like I didn’t, I haven’t realised I’m funny.”
Her followers on TikTok would beg to differ and Rachel says coming home now has become a slightly more bizarre experience. A growing platform means more eyes now flicker with recognition and it’s a reality she is trying to accept. “Most of my followers would be in Dublin and Ireland,” she explains. “I don’t have a big following by any means in comparison to the bigger guns but people will stop me in the street now when I’m home.”
Remaining authentic is important for Rachel. She admits she spent most of her teenage years pretending to be someone else and has made a very conscious choice not to do that anymore. “I recognised what was working pretty fast [online] and I just clung onto that and jumped on the bandwagon” she notes. “And what was working was authenticity and being sincere. What Irish people hate is being sincere but sometimes someone needs to say what everyone is thinking. I’ve always been a person who has been authentic and it always pains me to try to be someone else.”
Much of Rachel’s inspiration and content comes from real life and The Shite Feminist is no different. “It’s such an uninspiring story which kills me,” she jokes. “So, I was in drama school and it was a master’s course which means we had to write a thesis and we had to write a show to accompany it. I was forced to write this show and I didn’t think it would go beyond my drama teachers.”
In her thesis, Rachel explored how humour can be used as a “catalyst” in social movements, specifically the feminist movement. “Then to accompany it, I did a comedy show talking about my upbringing and if I were to look back have I been an incredibly shite feminist and I’ve come to the conclusion looking back on my life that I haven’t been the best feminist.
“I’ve changed myself for boyfriends or I have changed myself to fit in with other girls or I’ve dumbed down my humour or my intelligence. I have slotted myself into this idea of the perfect woman. It’s a comedy and there are comments on society and the patriarchy and I know everyone hates to talk about that but it’s the truth!”
Having sold out all her Dublin shows in less than a minute, Rachel hopes The Shite Feminist can grow from a one-woman show into a full-scale Fleabag-style production.
“I want to write a TV show,” she adds. “It’s definitely going to be based on The Shite Feminist. I’d love to write a Normal People, Fleabag, Derry Girls show about a Dublin girl who moves to London with the whole Trinity cohort where they are all going into their finance jobs and she’s trying to do acting. Obviously, not my own life, very far removed.”
With humour on her side, we have no doubt she will succeed.
One of the gals has certainly done good.
Watch Édaein’s interview with Rachel in full below.
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