Cormac Brannigan. A bodybuilder, a gym stalwart and an egg advocate. On the front face, a broad description of 'The Corminator' simply depicts his gym habits.
But there's more to the Rathcoole man than meets the eye. Inside the mind of The Corminator is a complex man, who has his values and his habits. There's a deep level of intrigue.
Cormac was one of the stars, if not the star, of the now defunct 'Tallafornia' series. It'll be approaching it's ten year anniversary in December from when it first aired.
While many of the cast have had moments in the limelight and have done quite well for themselves; The Corminator has been living life in the shadows. He's kept himself relatively hidden.
Pulling up at the taxi rank
What did Cormac do before plummeting into stardom? He made his trade in the taxi business, as seen in the show he had no problem driving his fellow cast members from A to B.
One can't help but wonder what it would be like to experience a taxi ride with The Corminator. What the small talk would be like. You'd have to get some gym advice in there, surely.
Cormac spoke after the show about how his new found fame diminished his taxi work. Getting recognised here, there and everywhere wasn't good for business.
"What they're doing now is they come over in a group of 20 and they're all taking photographs and they get into the car and they don't want to go anywhere," he said in article.
"But I'm not interested in all that. I'm working and trying to make some money. So now I have tints in the windows and I don't turn the light on and I don't catch anyone's eye. I'm getting half the amount of fares."
Was Tallafornia relatable?
It's an unfortunate repercussion of TV reality fame. A man that wants to live his life as normal, and probably couldn't have foresaw the masses who would gravitate towards him.
Which begs the question; why are we so intrigued by The Corminator? Why is this man such a must-watch on our TV screens that we see ourselves going back in time to relive a 2011 TV3 reality show?
The love affair for Reality TV doesn't seem to be diminishing. Love Island dominated our boxsets over the summer and will continue to do so. Netflix have played their hand in multiple reality shows.
But there's very little out there that makes you resonate with the Irish public. You can almost sympathise with the Tallafornia cast members to a certain degree.
They're going down to The Plaza on a Saturday night, they're heading to the local Tescos midweek, they spend their evenings in the gym. It's not too dissimilar from the trajectory of a typical Irish week.
Speaking on Cormac individually, his often reserved nature and socially awkward persona made for enjoyable television and equally enjoyable viewing.
Do we all see a friend or someone we know in The Corminator? While it might be hard to recreate the physique, his mannerisms are relatable and in ways, as he seems like a fish out of water on the show.
The business mogul
He's spoken before in interviews about how he didn't do the show for fame, he did it for money. He's a business man at heart. Hence his bothersome taxi experiences.
Even just analysing his trademarking of sorts of The Corminator. The only cast member with a recognised nickname that could be used on merchandise, branding and the likes.
In fact, Cormac's twitter bio still advertises "Get your 'Corminator Tee'" but the website is down. He knows his worth. He had the know-how to convert his fame into cash.
In interviews after the show, he spoke about his love affair with Grey Goose, the vodka brand. "I put Grey Goose vodka on the map in Ireland, so I’d be the ideal person to endorse it."
"The amount of sales off licences have had as a result of what happened on the show was massive." Cormac should really do a thesis on this subject choice alone.
The Grey Goose endorsement might not have come knocking, as on one of the episodes the cast swapped out his vodka of choice for... nothing. He went along with it, the poor divil.
The iconic scenes
On the show itself, there were too many iconic moments to go through all individually. In fact, the lads over at Tallafornia Swipe really brought Cormac's antics to a new level.
You had his on and off love affair with Nikita at the start of the show. The lads all pile in to find them in bed, and Cormac hides himself under the blankets. A private man at heart.
The way he stood and mobilised himself around the house. His different poses almost showed different layers of muscle groups. It was like he was in a constant tense.
Then you had his multiple nightclub appearances where dancing clearly wasn't his strong point. You put any Irish lad on TV dancing in a nightclub and that's not far off what you'll get.
Are there some deep underlying family issues? His brother appears in one of the episodes, and he says, "myself and my brother were close but not overly close, not like regular brothers."
"We don't need to speak about it. We train and we eat together and that's our bonding, you know." In fact, it's hard not to think that's how Cormac bonds with everyone else.
Nonetheless, it seems during the show at times he comes out of his shell, whether it's the alcohol or just out of pure peer pressure. It can be hard to tell.
Before a mandatory nightclub appearance, he says, "I don't make promises like, I'm going to get 5 girls bras or any of that crap. I just act on it."
His actions in the nightclub often feel as if it's not a natural setting for Cormac. When he meets one girl, his initial thought is to point and her and say, "you changed your hair, you were blonde last time weren't ya?".
The love affair with eggs
Then who can forget the iconic line from the shopping trip with Nikita. Cormac has clearly gone rogue and veered away from the shopping list, and Nikita isn't happy.
"Who eats that many f'kn eggs?" she asks. "When you break that down, it's only five eggs per bloke per day." A resourceful man at heart, our Cormac.
Then the expletives go flying as the two are clearly not seeing eye to eye regarding the shopping trip. "Calm down, right, you're nineteen shut your face."
You can't help but feel Cormac could have a job in a classroom and if someone acts up, he's just there in waiting to remind them of their age and to shut their face.
In fairness to Cormac, nearly half the show ended up being a huge advertisement for eggs as they cooked them every day. Forget the grey goose, get Cormac promoting the eggs.
Will we ever see The Corminator emerge from The Shire?
We've yet to see a proper follow up to Tallafornia. The show was loosely based on MTV's 'Jersey Shore' in the U.S. and later 'Geordie Shore' in the UK.
The general public were treated to 21 seasons of Geordie Shore and umpteen seasons of Jersey Shore and successive spin-offs. Why haven't we got a follow up?
There is obviously a market for those who enjoy watching Love Island. A huge portion don't take it seriously, and often just watch it out of enjoyment for how outlandish it is.
While with Tallafornia, it almost seems too relatable to try and bring back in ways. It too can be outlandish, but would it be difficult to pull off a semi-legit reality show without being all in.
Sometimes things are better left in the past. Maybe that's The Corminator's thinking with his life in the limelight. But no matter how hard he tries, we'll still have our memories.
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