Posts Tagged ‘IMCAs’

Are you musical? Are you funny? Do you enjoy entertaining people through the medium of musical comedy?? You do?!?!?! Then we have the perfect competition for you! Back for their second year the Irish Musical Comedy Awards are currently taking submissions from anyone who thinks they can follow in Ursula Burns’ footsteps and wow judges and audience members alike If you’re interested listen up…

We are taking submissions for entries to the IMCAs until August 20th. Please post your video to our page and we’ll pick ten acts to perform at the first round of heats on September 6th. Best of luck!

You get that? Good Now strum your way over to the Irish Musical Comedy facebook page and get submitting, you’ve only 6days left to make your move so beat it!

Summer is a happy festival laden season with a variety of events to suit every taste popping up all around the country. Today the 2nd annual Kerry Comedy Festival kicks off with a Father Ted Night at 8.30pm in The Laurel’s Pub in Killarney. Joe Rooney, Patrick McDonnell and Paul Tylak will be headlining the Father Ted bill and Paddy Cullivan (Late Late Show Camenbert Quartet) and Ursula Burns (who you’ll remember as the Winner of the Irish Musical Comedy Awards 2012) adding support. Tickets are just €18 so you’d be mad not to drop in and check out such a stellar line-up!

Tomorrow, Saturday 30th, you should really get yourself to the Carlton Hotel in Tralee at 8.30pm where the amazing line-up includes John Colleary of The Savage Eye, Fred Cooke (Republic of Telly, The Savage Eye), Jarlath Regan as MC, and the lovely Carol Tobin and Shayrn Hayden representing the ladies!! With tickets once again only costing €18 it’s sure to be a great value evening of laughter and fun.

Finally the festival will close on Sunday July 1st in The Hillgrove Hotel Dingle with Colm O’Regan and his brilliant show Ireland’s Got Mammies. Tickets are just €12 and include support from the very entertaining Colum McDonnell.

Get your tickets now on www.entertainment.ie but be quick, with a line-up like that they’re bound to sell out fast!

Where: The Kingdom

When: Fri29th June – Sun1st July

Time: 8.30pm

Cost: from €12-€18

Ursula Burns - photo courtesy of Joanne Ham Photography

We, at thecomedyscoop have been excitedly following the progress of the inaugural Irish Musical Comedy Awards since their conception and it was with great pleasure that I got together with their eventual winner, Ursula Burns for a little chat.

I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did!

Ursula, I have to start off by saying congratulations on winning the IMCA’s last month! Tell me, how does it feel to be in the history books as the winner of the first ever Irish Musical Comedy Awards?

Ursula

I never usually win anything. I always wonder why I never win the hamper , or the holiday, or the car. I suspect if I had won a bus trip to Newry in a school raffle, I would have been delighted.  Therefore can you imagine how good I feel to be the first ever WINNER of the IMCA awards!  I love songs! I have been writing songs all my life – I started at age 3 with a song for my parents entitled ” I have been long enough with you”. Nothing is more important to me than writing songs ( except my son). To get an award for my songs makes me so deeply deeply happy.

Wow! You started writing songs at 3 but this is your first time winning a competition, it’s great to hear you’ve finally gotten the recognition you deserve! There were a lot of great musical acts competing in the finals with you, what do you think was the secret to your success on the night?

 Well, what I am doing is Unusual – Unusual Ursula to be exact! My mother is a harpist and traditional folk musician, my dad likes to party and sing funny songs. What won me the award is being 50% of my mum and 50% of my dad all rolled up into one strange me! As for the voices… I have no idea where they come from and have no-one to blame that on. The harp’s image needs roughed up a bit, I am breaking it out of its box. It’s not what people expect of the harp. That gives me an advantage. It is unique and rare. I am experienced at performing so I managed to get the crowd on my side after a long night of listening, I think that stood in my favour.

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Thanks to the hard work of Sharyn Hayden, Wednesday 25th April 2012 will now go down in the history books, as the first ever Irish Music Comedy Awards! I was lucky enough to get to experience the night firsthand and it was a blast

When I heard the venue changed at the last-minute I did struggle to visualise how 4 Dame Lane would work for this event but, as soon as I walked in, I really liked the feel of the venue. It turns out they’ve far more space upstairs than my previous visit led me to believe and it was pretty well laid out to accommodate the crowd and comedians! The only thing that was really lacking was a back stage area, which meant the finalists were sitting among the punters until it was time to get on stage. I personally quite liked this, as it meant each of the contestants had an opportunity to get a proper feel for their audience and, of course, they also got a great view of their competition performing!

Sharyn Hayden and the Judges

The three judges (Marty Miller, Amanda Brunker, Paddy Cullivan) obviously got the best seats in the house, right beside the stage, but they were cleverly placed so they didn’t block the audience’s view of each act. They also didn’t comment, Britains Got Talent style, after each act which meant the night felt more like a comedy gig rather than a ‘typical’ awards ceremony. For me this gave the evening a sense of being about supporting all Irish musical comedy not about pitting comedians against each other or seeking out their weaknesses and I think that was a big positive of the event.

Our host for the evening was the charismatic Fred Cooke, who did an admirable job of keeping the audience on side when anything started to go slightly awry, and of course there were a few mishaps along the way, it was the first event of its kind afterall! Fred managed to deal with a few hiccups in his script and various delays while some of the acts set up very well. I think Fred was a good choice of host, he interacted well with the crowd and they had a lot of fun with his material, especially once he pulled out his guitar.  It certainly wasn’t the easiest crowd to keep on side, but Fred managed to end the night as he started, with his energy and enthusiasm remaining largely undampened, even in spite of some of the crowd getting pretty restless as we approached the final few acts.

The acts themselves got a mixed reaction from the crowd, but that was inevitable with 12 different contestants, a comedian MC and 2 guest performances, everyone was not going to enjoy them all! Each of the acts did manage to make me laugh in some way during their slot though and I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of musical comedy talent that made it to the final. In case you’ve forgotten who they all were, in order of performance on the night;

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Just browsing through my photos (and memory) of last night and realised it was pretty educational really! So, in not particular order, here’s a few things I seem to have learned amid my giggles…..

• The harp does NOT rock! (Ursula Burns)
• You will never recover from seeing your parents having sex! (Floozy & Bluesy)
• Sharyn Hayden looks like a Special K ad. lady (Fred you charmer!)
• Marty Miller isn’t from FM104 (lol!)
• Fred Cooke does a pretty mean ‘Thriller’ dance
•  ”Dublin is the centre of the Universe” (Nostril Shorts)
•  The Guilty Folk found us very attractive (AWLTF)
• Even a Massey Ferguson doesn’t guarantee you a ride at the disco (Johnny Graham)
• If in doubt always wear your tightest trousers (Really Tight Pants)
• The ‘Where’s Wally’ franchise have branched out to include the less academically able readers (Trevor Browne)
• Paddy Cullivan is not a big fan of boybands
• The InQuizition are ‘rimprov’ masters!
• Awkward moments make for very funny song lyrics (Steve Bennet)
• “Abalone are a type of mollusc” (Marcus O’Laoire)
• “You can be a gangster but still have manners!” (Brendogg & Bolsak)
• I’m missing an “essential fashion item” :O (Totally Wired)
• Amanda Brunker isn’t afraid to take on her haters
• The Rubberbandits are far more entertaining  in the flesh than on the telly!
• I need to get my hands on a better camera! Inspite of that final fact I’ve included a few of myshots that made me giggle, I’m sure we’ll have better ones up soon thanks to the wonderful Sharyn
  

  time to get back to your rap roots lads!

who needs a mic stand?

nostril shorts indeed!

Stevie Wonder's guest appearance!

'gay best friend'