Kindofa Comedy Festival.

I’m not sure what to call it, a mini-festival, a humorous respite, a tickle perhaps. Whatever it is there’s plenty of comedy to be had in Dublin this weekend thanks to the people at Podcast Comedy who are putting on a, ...well as I say I’m not sure what to call it.

I do have my concerns about the line up though. There are some very fine names on it, as John Giles would say but I’m not sure that they’re venue filling names. Nick Doody anyone? Basically what you have is a few London based club comics with Irish supports. This is not necessarily a bad thing. At the moment a lot of the Irish acts headlining theatres around the country are club acts with an elevated media profile and punters are more than happy with the quality on offer.

So what do we get this weekend. Well as I say, as David O’Leary might say, there are some great acts. Canadian Glenn Wool is one such great act, he plays Crawdaddy on the 26th. Australian Steve Hughes is probably the most improved act in the world and is well worth checking out. We Are Klang are fantastic.

On the other hand Matt Kirshen is pretty average, Jim Jeffries, well personally I never really got it and Nick Doody I can’t say anything about because it’s just a name I vaguely recognise.

Of the bigger names, Sean Hughes I haven’t seen in years but in his day was one of the finest stand ups around. Owen O’Neill is always wonderful. And the festival headliner Roseanne Barr, well that’s one of those ones that could so go either way isn’t it.

Finally a very important mention for the ‘support acts’ as they’re being billed. Colm O’Regan takes up a few slots. Colm has proved himself to be one of the best up and coming Irish talents in the last couple of years. He’s paired with Matt Kirshen and Nick Doody. I know who I’d be looking forward to seeing most. Similarly Gentleman Comic Jarlath Regan, coming off the back of his recent TV show should shift more tickets than the acts he’s purporting to be supporting. Actually taking a glance at the line up Jarlath and Glenn Wool looks like the pick of the bunch.

The people at POD must be applauded for bringing a weekend of comedy to Dublin. They’ve proved you don’t need superstar names for a top quality line up. I just hope this transfers to the box office.

The Podcast Comedy Weekend takes place at Tripod, Crawdaddy and The Button Factory from the 24th to the 27th of Oct. Full details of the line up can be found Here

I think I’ve established the quality of the line up since even when describing the weaker acts I didn’t have to use the words, ‘as Eamonn Dunphy might say’.

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