Don and Roddy

IFOA officially opened last night with the PEN Canada 25th Anniversary Gala, the showcase of which was an on-stage interview between Roddy Doyle and Don McKellar. I have been to a number of these staged conversations over the years, and I've always wondered how the participants manage to overcome the undeniably odd set-up: two interesting people talk to each other as if they are alone, as if they aren't on stage at the biggest literary festival in North America, as if 250 other people aren't also in the room. McKellar tipped his hat to the hilariousness of their situation right off.

"We're supposed to have a spirited conversation," he told Doyle. And then this: "I'm worried you're not going to live up to my expectations."

And away they went.

The two were lovely together, especially considering they'd only just met for the first time at the reception beforehand. To his credit, McKellar let Doyle do the majority of the talking, and the audience was taken on a fascinating trip through 1980s and modern-day Ireland, the writing life and Doyle's new book, The Deportees.

"The problem with being Irish," said Doyle, "is it's like having Riverdance on your back." He quickly followed up to make it clear that he does not consider himself an emissary, or a cultural envoy, from the Land of Green. "I'm me, not Ireland," he said.

What I noticed most in Doyle, and what surprised me the most, was how much he reminded me, suddenly but surely, of David Foster Wallace. Though on the surface the two have little in common, Doyle has a a broad measure of the self-deprecating humility that we all so loved about DFW, both as a celebrity and a writer. Doyle took great pains to make it clear that his opinions were his - he was not speaking for Ireland as a whole - and every time he used the word "we" he stopped and apologized. For someone so intelligent (he weighed in on everything from immigration to texting in Gaelic), and so damn funny (again, he could be Dublin's DFW), Doyle is remarkably "street," confident but modest and far from snooty. Or at least that's how he was last night.

McKellar, for his part, had a good lot to add, and a few probing questions I really liked. Sadly, I was so drunk from the reception that I forgot to write them down (see below).

The last word goes to Roddy:
"Who says the art of conversation is dead? I say the art of getting people to shut-up has died."

TONIGHT: A big reading, with such headliners as David Adams Richards and Nadeem Aslam. Don't miss it!