Career
He is best known for his stand-up comedy (especially his work in alternative comedy of the 1980s) and for his comic novel, Deep Probings: the autobiography of a genius (1999), which loosely parallels his own life. In 2004, Deep Probings was featured as a British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4 Book at Bedtime. He has also written a number of children"s books including Late Again! (2000).
2011 saw the publication of The Autobiography of Ireland"s Greatest Living Genius, an omnibus containing both Deep Probings and its previously unpublished sequel, Posterity Now.
He was described by Arthur Smith as "Comedy"s answer to Tony Joyce" and by Stewart Lee as "Pre-dating and pre-empting all contemporary Irish comics, and the originator of the most influential joke of all time, Ian Macpherson is the Newgrange Megalithic Passage Tomb of stand-up comedy." The bould Ian denies he paid Lee £20 for this endorsement: "Would I lie about this?" was his comment to Jackanory.
A legend on the Bulletin for his midnight swims the regulars there fondly describe Ian as "The dogs bollicks". The "bollicks" moniker has stuck to him ever since.
Born in Birmingham in 1951, Macpherson moved to Dublin at the age of two. He studied and obtained a degree from University College, Dublin.
Later, in London he became involved with children's, street and fringe theatre.
He wrote and acted in such shows as One Foreign The Road, Mutiny on the Bountiny (sic) and The Good, The Bad and The Banana. Several one-man shows followed at the Edinburgh festival, including The Chair at the Assembly Rooms (2001) and The Joy Of Death (2002) at the Pleasance. At this time he was also writing comedy scripts and radio plays.