Just one of the chuckle-making greeting cards for all occasions contained in Jarlath’s Regan’s first book - ‘How to Break Bad News - greetings from the Dark Side’. The collection of hilarious gift cards has finally been brought together into book form after a number of years of being sold by the comedian on his website and Culch.ie was lucky enough to pop along to the launch.
Held in a packed Sugar Club, it earns the gong of being the most entertaining book launch this book launch veteran has ever attended. Though the normal elements were all there - thanking the family, the friends, the publishers and the agent, thanking people for coming and buying the book, saying a few introspective things and signing a few copies of the masterpiece - there were some added extras. Admittedly, extras were in order because it was an unusual book launch - one with a €15 ticket price, but punters certainly got value for money.
The night kicked off with Jarlath recounting a few stories about how he got into the greeting card business and using a trusty macbook (instantly endearing) and projector to show a few of the cards that didn’t make it into the book on the big screen.
As it turned out, visual humour was a feature of the night. Regan’s fellow comedian Dermot McMurrow entertained the crowd with a set that included jokes surrounding various images of iconic artwork and other things being flashed up on the projector (yes, it was one of those things that has to be seen to be understood).
The real treat of the night however was in the second half when Regan performed his 2009 Edinburgh show for the audience. An incredibly genuine comedian whose humour seems to revolve around being constantly chuffed by the small stuff in life, he delivers the material in a sort of bashful way that defies you not to like him. There’s no leaping about the stage or streams of curses as can be popular, just a good storyteller behind the mic. You couldn’t help coming away thinking that it must be a well put together man that can have a comedy routine centred around his family, friendships and fiancee, and yet have succeeded so well in creating jokes that entertain without particularly offending anyone that he could still perform it with every single one of them in the room.
Jarlath Regan’s first book How to Break Bad News - Greetings from the Darkside, is in the bookshops, and having had it to hand for a fortnight or so around the house, it can be heartily endorsed for the coffee table, the bathroom book or that elusive thing, a not-crap Christmas stocking filler. A book from the humour section that actually lived up to its classification? It had to be blogged.
Sounds fantabulous!
Oh sounds great, I want….