sez Pat O’Mahony:
Jaze, how did we get here so quickly? This Fri, January 24th, is our second-last You Couldn’t Make It Up recording for Newstalk. It seems like only…oh alright, just over eight weeks since we did our first show in The Helix in DCU on November 29th. How time flies when you’re busy as feck.
Looking back on the last two months, it’s been a steep learning curve for all involved. Even though the format’s been a long time in the preparation - my co-producer, Mark Warren of Firebrand Productions, first approached me with an idea he had for a comedy news panel show in early 2011 – it’s only when you actually go into production that you really see what does and doesn’t work.
It took a lot of effort to get it as far as the starting block. Long evenings were spent over tea and biscuits with a small core of interested mates working out the mechanics of the format, trying various permutations, debating suggested options and arguing over different possibilities, before we even felt ready to pilot a first edition.
Now, three years after writing up the first draft we’ve eight of our ten shows done and dusted. I guess persistence sometimes pays off, huh?
So what have we learned?
Well, as a show whose main raw materials are news and comedy we’re hugely dependent on interesting and relevant stuff making the headlines the week before we record each show and then need to ensure we have the funniest folk available on hand to expose its laughter potential.
Get over those two hurdles and we’re nearly there. The rest is organisation, preparation and making sure the best bits make the edit.
So what exactly is You Couldn’t Make It Up? I’m glad you asked.
You Couldn’t Make It Up, which goes out every Sunday evening until February 2nd on Newstalk at 6pm, is a half-hour comedy news panel show that lets two teams of funny folk loose on the week’s events to riff irreverently on contemporary Irish and global culture, characters and institutions, analysing, scrutinising and/or ridiculing them as they see fit.
For the last act each team is assigned characters, quotes and scenarios plucked from the opening rounds which they incorporate into a pair of satirical sketches performed as the climax to the show.
Your news, it says here, will never sound the same again.
You Couldn’t Make It Up is recorded in front of a live studio audience in DCU’s The Helix on Friday evenings from 6.30pm. Free tickets are available on a rolling basis during the week ahead of each recording.
So if you’d like to attend this week’s recording on Friday January 24th and can be in The Helix for 6.30pm, please email [email protected] stating how many people you’d like tickets for. The more the merrier.
If you can’t make it then, we’ll be recording our last show on the 31st.
To keep up to date, you can follow You Couldn’t Make It Up on Twitter at @YCMIUnewstalk and on Facebook at facebook.com/YCMIU1
And if you’ve missed any of the first eight shows, you can catch up with them either over at Newstalk or at iTunes.
You Couldn’t Make It Up is a Firebrand production, funded by the BAI Sound & Vision scheme in association with Vodafone.
Pat O’Mahony
Co-Producer/Presenter
You Couldn’t Make It Up
Newstalk Sundays 6pm
http://newstalk.ie/ycmiu
