This Halloween, Portlaoise will be invaded by zombies!
Well no, actually just by a host of comedians from Ireland, the UK and beyond from 22 October to 26 October. For the second year running comedians will take part in the Carlsberg Halloween Howls Comedy festival in the town of Portlaoise in some teeny, tiny venues (some can hold just 60 people) and some not so tiny.
The comedians will include Jason Byrne, PJ Gallagher, Neil Delamere, Andrew Maxwell, Barry Murphy, Karl Spain, Maeve Higgins, Colin Murphy, Aidan Bishop, Colum McDonnell, Bernard O’Shea, Willie White, John Moloney, Dermot Whelan, Dermot McMurrow, Joe Rooney, Eric Lalor, David McSavage, John Lynn, Damian Clark, Tommy Nicholson, Andrew Stanley, Carol Tobin, Colm O’Regan, Dead Cat Bounce, Fred Cooke, Gearóid Farrelly, Keith Farnan, Kevin Gildea, Paddy Courtney, Simon O’Keefe, Keith Walsh and a Whose Line Is It Anyway line up of Greg Proops, Steve Frost, Richard Vranch, Steve Steen, Andy Smart and Ian Coppinger. I’m really impressed with that Whose Line Is It Anyway line up, that’s three of the original guys from when I used to watch it on tv.
The best thing about this festival (or one of the best anyway) is that all venues are within a three minute walk from each other so you can easily flit from gig to gig over the course of an evening without breaking a sweat or tossing your hair.
You can see the full schedule of performances here.
There will also be some fringe events over the course of the same weekend like the charity pig race, comedians golfer of the year award, the Premier League Liverpool V Manchester United match -with live comentary from two football savvy comedians, and finally a bus tour around Portlaoise.
To find out more about Halloween Howls you can visit their website, follow them on Twitter @HalloweeHowls or join their Facebook page.
Thanks to Darragh for telling me about this festival.
