Cat Laughs – The Sunday Night

Waking up on Sunday was tough after just 5 hours of sleep. We made our way back into Kilkenny city and grabbed some food in ‘The Field’. After a couple of pints we headed up to see the traditional football match between the Irish comedians and ‘The Rest of the World’. It’s clear that they take it quite seriously but there were plenty of opportunities at either end. ‘The Rest of the World’ side missed a few chances and were made to pay with winning goals from Neil Delamere and David O’Doherty. DOD played especially well for the Irish in midfield. The game ended 4-2 in favour of the Irish.

After meeting Ken Mc Guire at the game (he looked to have taken some great photos), we headed back towards town for more food and beers. The gig we had booked in for was the early one so we got along early and got good seats (plus free pints of Smithwicks). The comedians we saw were:

• Josh Thomas: young guy from Australia. His act revolves around the fact that he really is quite young and as a consequence, a tad awkward, especially with women. He was MC on the night and gig a great job. Darragh’s done a post on him here.
• Damian Clark: I’ve seen Damian a few times now and really like his comedy. The guy has a lot of energy and his new material was great. Especially liked the way he finished out his set with the ‘dancing to your ipod tune’ bit.
• Andy Parsons: I’d never seen Andy before but he got straight into his set by ripping on Darren’s hat. He looked really at home throughout his set and it was clear that he’s atuned to politics and current affairs. Would like to see him again.
• Jason Byrne: I don’t think I’ve seen a Jason Byrne show before but I was expecting high energy. What I wasn’t expecting was him to have a nosebleed two minutes before the end of his set. He really was going for it. The guy is really, really funny and made great reference to the two 14-year-olds sitting in the front row.

After gig pints were consumed and we went to see the second gig of the evening in the River Court featuring John Henderson, Danny Bhoy, Kevin Gildea and Mike Wilmott. I missed Mike’s set but John, Danny Bhoy (in particular) and Kevin Gildea were all great. After the gig we went to the Ormonde residents bar (in joke: high five to ‘Sean Michaels’) and then made our way back to Graiguenamagh. Big thanks to: Darren, Liz, Darragh, Niamh & Mary. That was one hell of a weekend.