We never joke about comedy here at Culch.ie (har har). Tough audience we may be, but we did get a serious number of laughs from our trip to Kilkenny’s own Cat Laughs festival last year and the good memories of blazing sun (an Irish rarity), bellylaughs and beer have us all excira about this year’s festival.
David O'Doherty and Adam Hills at G'nite Cats 2009
Happening from June 3rd to 7th (i.e. over the June Bank Holiday weekend), the line up of comedians on this year’s bill include some of last year’s highlights: Dead Cat Bounce, David O’Doherty, Jason Byrne and Sarah Millican as well as some faces back on the Kilkenny circuit after a break (Dara O’Briain for one) and some brand new jokesters making their Cat Laughs debuts in the form of Simon Amstell and Gearóid Farrelly.
Kilkenny promises to be a great weekend of comedy talent if last year was anything to go by so Culch recommends booking somewhere to rest your head quick sharpish and getting to work on your dream line-up to see as much comedy action as you can across the five days.
Over 40 comedians will be taking to the various stages at venues around Kilkenny over the course of the festival and while we can’t mention everyone, we’ve studied the form in 2009 and here’s our racecard of Irish hopefuls:
Dead Cat Bounce impressed some very sticky-hot Culchies in a sticky-hot venue at an evening show last year. Their brand of musical comedy is original and hilarious and having caught them twice more in 2009, I can say they charmed three times and are worth a look!
Jason Byrne did a hilarious double act with Adam Hills at last year’s festival when they both introduced Hans Teeuwen (say it with me: “Nostradamus, Nostradamus”…don’t ask). Though Hills is sadly absent from this year’s line-up, Byrne is back and if his recent Vicar Street show was anything to go by, he’s on top form.
Gearóid Farrelly was unknown to me until a ten minute stint supporting Dead Cat Bounce in The Twisted Pepper a few months back. I haven’t managed to see him anywhere since but there were laughs enough to recommend making it your business to catch this up-and-comer in Kilkenny.
PJ Gallagher has been doing the rounds this year what with having the new DVD out. I saw him at FM104′s Havin’ A Laugh back in August - I recommend you see him too.
David O’Doherty, with a large dollop of personal bias and swooning on my part, does things with tiny keyboards that will make you cry tears of laughter. His very low energy musical whimsy reaches high points with numbers such as Florence Falls (I haven’t heard it anywhere but on the first CD - please do it live DOD!), Sent A Text and Very Mild Superpowers. I’ve seen him in Whelans, I’ve seen him at the Carlsberg Comedy Carnival, I’ve seen him as part of a line-up at a charity show in Vicar Street and I’ve seen him cycling down Camden Street - you ain’t never seen such consistently quality whimsy.
Maeve Higgins has the potential to be a hard hitter. She tried a few lines on abortion at a gig a couple of months ago that didn’t go down well, but the smart comedy is brimming behind the happy girly routines and she’ll find her stride. On the final night of Cat Laughs last year she stepped into a line-up to replace a comedian who was ill (help me out Culchies - who was that?) which meant we ended up seeing her for three shows in a row. It was surprisingly pleasant. While I will never forget that her foundation is called Honey Beige, it’s gotta be said that Maeve’s come a long way and she’s just darn sweet to listen to.
Eric Lalor has got to be the gentleman of the circuit. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better example of someone genuinely on the up and feeling the joy for what they do and it carries through into a lovely onstage manner. I haven’t managed to catch him live since FM104 at Vicar Street a good few months back, but that’ll be rectified at Cat Laughs.
Dara O’Briain is obviously the big Irish name in Kilkenny this year. A lot of people may have seen him during his mammoth Vicar Street run - I did in January and we’re going again at the end of June because no two Dara shows are the same. The audience interaction is second to none and the man is at the top of his game. Ticket up, no excuses.
Check out http://www.carlsbergcatlaughs.com for more, don’t forget to go watch all the comedians play in the Ireland Vs the Rest of the World free football match on the Sunday and get your tickets for this year’s new innovation - the treasure hunt on the Saturday!
Eric Lalor, Tommy Tiernan and others line out for Ireland in the Ireland vs the Rest of the World football match
See you there?
Cant wait! Soin to see Barry Murphy and Des on fri and Simon Amstel and andrew Maxwell on sat! Sooo Excited!!