Posts Tagged ‘The Workmans’

The Orange Room, upstairs in The Workman’s, is a very intimate venue. Decorated in an ‘Ireland in the 70′s’ fashion the quaint room makes you feel more like you’re in your nan’s front room watching a family member do their party piece than at a comedy gig. This fact did not go unnoticed by Mary Bourke who immediately and directly addressed the potential awkwardness that comes with doing stand-up in front of a tiny audience in a venue like this. Her bluntness and the self-assuredness with which she addressed the room immediately allowed the crowd to relax into her set and the laughing soon began.

Mary promised us a show full of jokes and she certainly made good on that promise! After a brief introduction to the workings of a preview gig and a declaration that this set would lack the standard format of your traditional Edinburgh show, we were treated to an hour  filled with a variety of well told, funny stories encompassing everything from Mary’s experiences in job interviews to her life as a touring comedian and her addiction to one particular parenting website.

Mary Bourke has a relaxed, conversational style of comedy that enables her to breeze through her wickedly caustic set without alienating the crowd for a second. I particularly enjoyed Mary’s ‘Tweet or Delete’ game which allowed for some light-hearted audience interaction and her witty critique of the novel ’50 Shades of Grey’ had the room in stitches.

Mary has been performing as a stand-up comic for years and she has the self-assured aura of a veteran – evident in how relaxed she is in front of even the smallest of audiences. She has very intelligently planned material that will make you ponder and laugh aloud in equal measure. How much of what I saw on Monday night makes it into the final show in Edinburgh remains to be seen but if you enjoy good joke-driven comedy then Mary Bourke is someone to add to your ‘must see’ list.

You can find Mary on twitter and facebook.

Picture this scene. You’re sitting in a dark room as part of an audience, all of you sitting excitedly waiting on the comedy act to appear on stage. All of a sudden, four guys jump on stage wearing underpants. Yep that’s right underpants. Now they were lovely colourful underpants, but I had to recheck my ticket to make sure I hadn’t wandered into the wrong show…. well they are called No Pants Thursday afterall I guess! They were wearing an array of lovely shirts/t-shirts too.

After a quick round of introductions and the news that we were in the presence of royalty we were taken on a journey on a plane, one which we would never forget. With little one liners such as a response to the statement from one of the lads who said” I was down at the docks” being, “oh yeah Tommy used to work there” they had me laughing from the very beginning.

Mr Counterfeiter

We were introduced to many different characters during this very interesting plane journey including Jonathan Rhys Myers who was a lovely man…till he got a bit of drink in to him! We also saw Liam Neeson for a brief moment! Among the high flyers though we also had the business man (who wasn’t really a business man), a barbershop quartet (who weren’t only singers), a counterfeiter and some talking bags thrown in for good measure!

No Pants Thursday provide silly physical comedy with over exaggerated movements and facial expressions which really add to their performances. This being said they do tackle some serious issues using humour and do it very well. I found myself laughing out loud from start to finish. I found their material to be very clever with very funny one liners and a mix of longer scenes all blended together to provide a very enjoyable and hilariously funny evening at the Workman’s Club. To give you an idea of how the lads end their shows…..this is the how it ended

It all ends in chaos!

No Pants Thursday are a lot of fun to watch, they are silly, confident, have the ability to change characters in an instant which I was very impressed by. They are definitely one to try and catch if you get the chance. You can befriend them on Facebook here for all gig listing.

Walking into the Workman’s going to see Cormac Moore’s “Brainwashed” show I didn’t quite know what to expect. Well you wouldn’t from a guy who runs a website called Headcase and calls his solo show Brainwashed would you?

The room in the Workman’s evoked memories of old tea rooms, Cormac’s material did not however. Starting off with tales of his bankruptcy, we were lead through his life and his mind, which I must admit scared me a little bit sometimes.

Cormac has a problem with certain things, models, self-help books and €8k college fees to name just a few. He even worked out that you could get three of the most sought after Irish models to do a photo shoot on the top of Grafton Street in December for less than the cost of going to college! Bargain eh? Or you could just get a 99 ice cream cone every day for the next 11 years…..it’s got a flake in it don’t ye know.  He is not shy about telling the world about these issues and the many more he has.  He is a guy who will take a shot at pushing the boundaries, at one point referring to retards; however when the audience laughter dropped off slightly he reverted back to ‘safe’ material.

He uses the words “I was thinking” a lot during the show which helped the audience to relate to him as a lot of them sat nodding their heads in agreement! Personally I just got freaked out that so much random stuff can happen in one man’s brain.

Cormac has the potential to be a great comedian. He has a good flow to his comedy and did link his material well together plus the audience seemed to warm to him. With a brain like his, we may be in for some more random fun shows in the near future!

You can follow Cormac on his own website Headcase.ie here and on Facebook here

Don’t they say the best things in life are free? Well we here at the Comedy Scoop certainly thinks so  So just for you our lovely readers we have managed to get our hands on tickets to some of the best comedy gigs during the 10 days in Dublin festival. Here are those gigs we have tickets to:

• Lorcan Mc Grane takes to the Twisted Pepper stage on Fri 6^th and Sat 7^th @ 7.30pm and we can get you in to see him free either day
• Get tickets for ‘Brainwashed’ by Cormac Moore in The Workman’s either Sat 7th or Sun 8th @7.30pm

• Fancy seeing Vinny Mc Hale in Whelan’s?  He’s on Mon 9th @7.30pm

• Kieran Lawless takes over The International on Tues 10th @6pm
• 4comedians then band together to bring you 3Men and a Bitter Lady and we have tickets for either Tues 10th or Wed 11th in The Twisted Pepper @ 7.30pm
• Sketch comedy experts Foil Arms and Hog will be entertaining punters in The Workmans on Wed 11th @7.30pm – we have 1 pair left!

• Rory O’Hanlon can be found in The International Bar on Wed 11th @ 6.30pm
• Aidan Killian is happy to welcome you to Bad Ass on Wed 11th and Thurs 12th @9pm and we are lucky enough to have one pair of tickets for both nights
• Taking to the The Stags Head stage on Thurs 12th @9pm is Danny O’Brien with his show ‘All my Friends’

• The Princes of Lagos bring improv to 4Dame Lane on Thurs 12th @8.30pm
• ‘Game Boys’ will be live in The International Bar @6.30pm on Thurs 12th

• The crew from Humourisms.com will bring their show to The Workman’s on Sat July 14th @7.30pm
• Michael Downey’s return to comedy begins on Sat 14th @8.30pm

So have you seen something that takes your fancy? You have? Well fab! All you need to do is send us a mail to competitions@thecomedyscoop.com and tell us who you would like tickets for and let us do the rest! Why not have a night out on us eh? Get entering now!!

Time for another instalment from the extensive comedy line up at the 10Days in Dublin festival 5^th-14^th July 2012… hmm, who to share with you this time?!?

Ok so let’s start this post off with the very popular Rory O’Hanlon. Rory is taking to the stage with his new show ‘The Procrastinator’ in The International Bar on Wed11th @ 6.30pm. Well-known both around the Irish comedy scene and in the U.K. Rory is a rising star who’s well worth going to see.  Described on the 10days website “The Procratinator is Dublin comedian Rory O’Hanlon one man solo show. We all do it, spend most of our days telling ourselves what were going to do, set up your own business, go on that dream holiday ,ask out your ideal partner ,study hard for that exam ,but more than likely never get around to doing it, well lets just say you did do it and it still hasn’t worked out for you well now that’s a different story there is only one thing you can do there ,that’s to write it all down and perform it in a your favourite comedy room in your favourite city so that’s what Dublin stand up comedian Rory O’Hanlon is going to do” If  hilarious observational comedy and autobiographical storytelling is your preferred stand-up style you’ll love Rory, and you’ll love the €5 ticket charge too! And we have good news for you we’ve nabbed a pair of tickets for one lucky sod to enjoy the show for free! Make us smile in an email and they’re all yours competitions@thecomedyscoop.com

Fancy seeing a female comedian for a change? Well there’s two for the price of one in The Twisted Pepper on Thurs 12^th @7.30pm in ‘Jaffa Cakes’. An unusual name for a show I’m sure you’ll agree, so what’s it all about? 10days tell us “Pianist-guitarist Valerie Lynch and Harpist-Spoonist Christiane O Mahony sing about mental illness, unrequited love and root vegetables; between them the have kept a balcony lettuce plant alive for two weeks, vote no in the fiscal treaty so that their lettuce can grow up to be healthy and strong and not be turned into a tin of sauerkraut by that minx Merkel. Voted the hottest women in comedy* these witty wenches won’t disappoint. *based on a survey conducted in McDonald’s a 3 am; a young man who was passed out into a McFlurry, who had never attended a comedy club, said so. “ Hmm, sounds like two very interesting ladies are running the show and at only €5 it has to be worth a look-see!

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