Posts Tagged ‘Kilkenny Cat Laughs Comedy Festival’

In the interests of trying something different I found myself writing a poem,

I’m not sure how successful it is, though the verses do rhyme on their own.

I hope you enjoy my memoirs, from our weekend spent in Kilkenny,

And maybe next year you’ll come join us at this festival just for comedy?

The Cats Laughs Comedy Festival

Kilkenny was where it was at

On the June bank holiday weekend.

We had comedy, football and plenty of fun

Only the rain let us down in the end.

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We got served a few smiles in Langton’s;

By Karl and Adam and Gearoid,

Andrew and Colin also popped in;

Many funny stories were told.

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Then of to the Ormonde we went,

 To see Jason and Milton perform,

With Ian, Josh and Gunther there too

The crowd soon were in giggling form.

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Next on our agenda came Catapalooza;

A musical midnight showcase,

With Fred, Joe, Doc and Damo on stage

We soon had a smile on our face.

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In spite of bad weather on Sunday,

We made it down to the football.

The ‘Rest of the World’ won in the end,

Though ‘Ireland’ really gave it their all.

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‘Twas time for Pecha Kucha then,

With David and Jarlath and Colm

Lloyd and Alex joined the line up too

We enjoyed fun sets from all of ‘em

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Sadly that marked the end of our time in Kilkenny,

We saw 19 comedians and had laughs a plenty.

It’s well worth the trip, I recommend you try it,

Just remember your brolley, in case it rains a bit!

 

After a week of all things Kilkenny Cat Laughs, I decided it was about time I did a highlights type blog. As this was my first time at the festival, there were some high points and also some low points! Obviously one of the low points was the weather! Typically it rained for all the weekend, but thankfully we were clever about the shows we went to see and didn’t have that much of a walk in between venues!  Kilkenny isn’t that pretty when it rains!

The act that goes down as my Kilkenny love is Doc Brown. For those of you that don’t know Doc, firstly shame on you! Secondly I have included a YouTube video for your enjoyment. I caught Doc on Saturday night at the Catapalooza music extravaganza. And I’m just gonna say it; damn the boy’s got talent! Anyone that can make a rap out of making a cup of tea gets respect in my opinion!

 

 

 

He definitely made up for some of the other acts who kinda let me down I must admit. Kilkenny is a myriad of comedians all competing to get your attention by bringing their A game. In some cases, they fell just short of that for me.

 

Another love of Kilkenny would be Josh Widdicombe; Josh hates his Iphone, doesn’t want to grass up Microsoft programmes and describes Peter Pan as the “man in green”. Come on, what’s not to love?

 

Kilkenny is quite a random city, looking around the city you can’t help but notice the kilt wearing men, or more random still the guy wearing the belly top and the shortest shorts I have ever seen in my life (I was even treated to a peek under the shorts on his way to the loo!) Though in both cases they really should have put more thought in to the shoe choices!

 

I couldn’t have a highlights blog without mentioning the football match! Granted I saw most of it from the comfort of a car, it doesn’t matter right! I still watched a full football match! It was good fun and we got some good shots! (I’ve even included some for you!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cat Laughs was a great experience. 4 gigs, 19 comedians, a football match, and a trip to the cinema….all in the space of 26 hours! Roll on next year!

It’s no secret that I’m a musical comedy fan, so when I heard the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny was putting on their first gig exclusively dedicated to musical comedy I had to stop on by and check it out! Taking place at midnight in the Ormonde Hotel’s Kings Ballroom, this was the first ‘stand-up’ gig I’d been too where it wasn’t just the comedians on stage who were chairless! Unfortunately this casual pre-nightclub style format wasn’t at all conducive to the gig running smoothly.

 

The MC for the evening was Fred Cooke. Fred is generally a very entertaining comedian who is no stranger to musical comedy, but he really struggled to connect with the crowd on the night who paid little or no attention to his requests for people to listen to the acts on stage. His attempt at melodica requests, which is a part of Fred’s repertoire I’m actually a big fan of, fell flat on its face because the audience weren’t involved enough with him as an act and Fred seemed to really battle to keep his focus while on stage. It was definitely not the quality of performance you expect from a comedian with as much experience and funny material up his sleeves as Fred has.

 

The first act on stage was Joe Rooney whose set involved performing some of the best musical impressions I’ve heard! Joe managed to get a decent group of audience members fully enthralled with his impressive guitar playing and there were plenty of laughs to be heard during his time on stage. I particularly enjoyed Joe’s impression of Bono (he has the body language and gestures spot on!) and the section on famous people he’d like to have as fathers had the crowd in stitches.

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The last thing you want to do is arrive late to a comedy gig isn’t it? Well we did arrive late to this particular one! We were however welcomed by Gunther (Barry Murphy) and told that we hadn’t missed anything! I am very glad we did not miss his Eurovision song which had the whole audience in stitches. At the end of Gunther’s set himself and his sidekick (Ian) delighted the audience with their improved song about strawberries…..yes it was that random!

Ian Coppinger was the MC for the gig. Ian is quick-witted and is the first to make a joke about his height with lines such as; “people at the back, I’m not far away I’m just small” and my favourite ” yes there is a midget talking to you from the stage”

 

 

Josh Widdicombe was up next. Josh opened with an Iphone joke which had the audience on his side from the beginning. His observations on life including ATM’s thanking people after they have left the machine and Microsoft wanting its customers to grass its programmes up had the audience in fits of laughter. Possibly the funniest part for me in his set was his take on the board game Cluedo, “it would be a pretty crap party if only 5 guests turned up!”  Josh is young, sarcastic and questioning. The perfect mix

 

 

 

Milton Jones graced the stage next. Milton’s quick one liners are impressive and while some hit the lower end of the scale, his tales of travelling in search of the little green tree in the distance (his car freshner) and eventually running out of petrol all but made up for the bad puns.  Milton is definitely one worth going to see

 

 

Jason Byrne topped the bill this evening. Jason has spent the last few months in Australia and ended up being happy! Imagine that eh? Jason talks at a breakneck speed and you get the distinct impression that he is having a lot more fun than his audience is which is quite endearing I must admit. An audience member took centre stage during Jason’s set when the back of his head became the talking point! Jason even offered him €100 to walk backwards from the room…. Possibly the easiest money the guy made of the weekend! We also learned that Jason sprained the back of his head while “having a shite” before. Jason’s set was typically random to say the least!

 

All in all, this gig was worth the money.  There was some real laughs to be had among the not so great moments of dull moments before comedy. Of the comedians on offer this evening, Josh Widdicombe would have to be favourite; although they are all worth going to see if you get a chance.

Much like I image you are doing right now when I first heard this show was coming to The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny all I could think was ‘What on earth is that??’ Thankfully David O’Doherty was on hand on the evening to explain all. Pecha Kucha is a Japanese presentation methodology, most often used by architects, in which speakers have just 20 seconds to speak about each of 20 slides of their own choosing.

Definitely not your average stand up show right?

 

 

 

The venue was jam-packed as the first ‘speaker’ Colm O’Regan took to the stage. Sharing slides primarily focused on hilarious words of wisdom that only @irishmammies can bestow upon us, Colm seemed very at ease using the technology based format and it really helped the audience relax into the evening’s entertainment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jarlath Regan was next to take on the Pecha Kucha challenge with a very funny selection of his reasons to live in the country rather than in Dublin city. Jarlath didn’t think he’d manage to stick to the 20 second time limit per slide as he’s not generally a quick talker but he surprised himself and kept the audience laughing throughout his presentation without falling behind at all

 

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