Jon Kenny died in hospital on Friday night at the age of 66.
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"I think we were all quite numb yesterday," Shortt began. "You know, Jon had his battles with health over the last couple of years, and I remember when we were doing Banshees [of Inisherin] he confided in me in some of the things he'd gone through - but he was fine.
"You'd always hear Jon wasn't well and then you'd hear, 'Gosh, he's flying it', you know? So there was a bit of... when the news came through on Friday evening late, there was a bit of disbelief because he's [sic] as strong as an ox and a hardy buck, like. But it started to kind of become reality then and we were all a bit numb yesterday. So we're just kind of coming to terms with it now, I think."
On the subject of their favourite times together, Shortt said he would "always go back to the rehearsal room with Jon", "creating the characters of D'Unbelievables and coming up with it".
"We used to always kind of say we never wrote anything, we just made it up," he told the host.
"That workshop process, which was so much fun with Jon. I mean, he was a manic character and full of energy and he just exploded with ideas and creativity. He was incredibly creative."
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Shortt said his late friend had "a whole life before I ever worked with him", including touring with the band Gimik and releasing the hit solo single Spancil Hill in 1985.
Jon Kenny - A uniquely Irish cultural giant
Of their first meeting, Shortt explained that his brother Tom had taken the photos for Kenny's single.
"I met him in Tom's house once, just before I was going to art college down in Thurles. He ended up coming up and playing with the blues band, there was a band I was in called Scratch Machine.
"He played with us one night and then I went to college in Limerick and he said, 'Look, if you're around on Wednesday nights, bring the sax down to Costello's bar in Limerick. I'm doing a residency there every Wednesday night'. So I started going down and having the craic with him and messing."
"I always say I did my apprenticeship with Jon," he continued. "I learned everything from him. He had a vast knowledge of theatre. He was also an amateur actor - he had won the Best Actor at the All-Ireland Drama Festival as well. He had done so much - and that was only at the age of 28...
"I did sound and lights for him for four years and we used to just keep writing and adding and messing. Like, we were going around doing pubs around Ireland and small bars, that kind of stuff. And then we kind of created characters and out of that came these two characters called D'Unbelievables, who were a wedding band."
"He loved people's company and he loved listening to other people's stories, songs, etc," Shortt recalled.
"He never stopped performing. We'd do a show and his energy was just unbelievable! We'd finish a show and we'd go down the town in Dublin somewhere - he'd be up on a table singing! He'd always find a guitar somewhere!
"I can't imagine anyone lived life as good as Jon Kenny. Just the week before he took ill, he did two shows in one day. He just grew up performing, and he was a natural performer. Wonderful performer - and a great writer as well."
"So many people got pleasure from Jon," Shortt concluded. "Yesterday, [there was] just a flood of lovely stories about him...
"I just have great memories of Jon. We toured all over America together and as far as Russia, Africa, and everywhere. There's just too many stories to start and you wouldn't know where to start and finish. But it was all good and all fun."
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