Vodafone Comedy Festival 2012

Exclamation Marc

Well the festival is back this year....

I enjoyed it a lot last year, some really good new acts.

It's on the 26th-29th July.

http://www.vodafonecomedy.com/

Nothing on the site yet though about acts...

After the somewhat disappointing Cat Laughs line-up, I'm hoping that this once again delivers

faceman

Its mostly stand up comedy once again. Needs more improv!

SlimJ

My vote for Must See Foreign Acts:

-Eddie Peppitone
-Kyle Kinane

Mickolution

Nice one, the same line-up as every other year :rolleyes:

coco_lola

Good Line up though! I love Dead Cat Bounce

Miguel_Sanchez

Reggie Watts would be worth seeing.

Galvasean

For those of you who haven't seen Totally Wired! yet (shame on you, they were at the Boards Xmas gig!) I would strongly recommend them if you are into musical comedy.

allanb49

Michael Winslow, hmmm

Sully

If I buy a ticket to see Michael Winslow on the Saturday at 4, and I want to see Tommy Tiernan at 7 - do I need to pay twice? Or if I buy a ticket for any show on the Saturday, I get to go to all shows on the saturday? So one ticket gives you access to the whole day?

Mickolution

You need to get tickets for each individual show you want to see, at least that's how it was other years. It's a shame you can't get a weekend pass like a music festival.

Sully

Mickolution wrote: »

You need to get tickets for each individual show you want to see, at least that's how it was other years. It's a shame you can't get a weekend pass like a music festival.

The mind boggles why they didn't. Id love to see various comedians but at 28euro a pop, ill pass. Great value but when your going to see several its pricey IMO. A weekend pass would be great.

Buy any ticket for any show, and the ticket will be your festival pass and access to the gardens for the entire day.

"festival pass" - that's the part that made me curious.

Mickolution

Yeah, it's a real pity, but I guess there'd be issues with capacity of tents and the like. Even though there's not anything I'm really interested in at the event, I'd gladly pay for a weekend pass and go see a bunch of acts I didn't know.

I think the "festival pass" bit means you can get into the gardens so they can sell you overpriced food/drink in the rain...

Exclamation Marc

Mickolution wrote: »

Yeah, it's a real pity, but I guess there'd be issues with capacity of tents and the like. Even though there's not anything I'm really interested in at the event, I'd gladly pay for a weekend pass and go see a bunch of acts I didn't know.

I think the "festival pass" bit means you can get into the gardens so they can sell you overpriced food/drink in the rain...

Yeah I think you're bang on with the capacity issues. I've been dying for a weekend pass but in reality if a pass gets you into any gig you want for the weekend, given that those tents are not huge in capacity you'd have people coming in for the first gigs and parking there all day meaning loads of people wouldn't get in.

It's not like a music festival where there's massive amounts of standing room at each show.

faceman

I could be mistaken but from memory I believe when the previous sponsor (Carlsberg?) was involved with the event, there were a number of free gigs/events within the grounds, although the main events were all ticket gigs.

18AD

What is the story with the tickets? The ticket has three acts listed. Do you get to see all three or just choose the one you want to see at that time?

Miguel_Sanchez

18AD wrote: »

What is the story with the tickets? The ticket has three acts listed. Do you get to see all three or just choose the one you want to see at that time?

You get to see the three acts. One of them will most likely be just MCing the show.

Exclamation Marc

faceman wrote: »

I could be mistaken but from memory I believe when the previous sponsor (Carlsberg?) was involved with the event, there were a number of free gigs/events within the grounds, although the main events were all ticket gigs.

Yeah it used to be Carlsberg alright. They used to have some of the acts roaming the grounds doing impromptu stuff but I think it was the same set-up as it is now more or less.

donkey oatey

Won tickets to see Reginald D Hunter on Sunday. I'm chuffed!

Miguel_Sanchez

I've been given a ticket to Reggie Watts on Thursday. Should be brilliant.

ShaneLad

Jeff_Lebowski wrote: »

Reggie Watts would be worth seeing.

Definitely! going to reggie with Dave O Doherty mcing tonight & really looking forward to it:)

Monkeybonkers

Saw Jaon Byrne and Bernard O Shea last night with Gearoid Farrelly MC'ing. Excellent gig.

Praetorian Saighdiuir

Was at Al Murray, Milton Jones & Karl Spain tonight.


Good craic, would go again

blastman

Went to Reginald D Hunter and Trevor Noah last night (with Abie Philbin Bowman). Loved Reg, had never heard of Trevor Noah but I thought he was really good. Bowman Jr. did a decent enough job of MC'ing, too. I wanted to see Kyle Kinnane but I could only go on Sunday evening so I missed him.

Had the joy of seeing Reggie Watts on Friday night who had me in stitches with his 'tits on fire' song.
However the evening was ruined by Maeve 'ahm' Higgins standing in for Kumail Nanjiani who unfortunately couldnt make it.
Her 30 minutes felt like 2 hours as she droned on about the biggest load of rubbish ever. I can see she was trying to be surreal but her delivery was terrible, every second word was 'ahm'! She did send a lot of people to the bar to await Reggie but I stuck through it in the vain hope of a joke somewhere but alas there were none.
How in gods name does she get any gigs?!

donkey oatey

Deleted User wrote: »

Had the joy of seeing Reggie Watts on Friday night who had me in stitches with his 'tits on fire' song.
However the evening was ruined by Maeve 'ahm' Higgins standing in for Kumail Nanjiani who unfortunately couldnt make it.
Her 30 minutes felt like 2 hours as she droned on about the biggest load of rubbish ever. I can see she was trying to be surreal but her delivery was terrible, every second word was 'ahm'! She did send a lot of people to the bar to await Reggie but I stuck through it in the vain hope of a joke somewhere but alas there were none.
How in gods name does she get any gigs?!

I was at the same gig in the front row and it Reggie was AMAZING! Maeve Higgins not so much. I'd seen her before but only realised when I recognised her material so her set must be pretty old.

ShaneLad

Deleted User wrote: »

Had the joy of seeing Reggie Watts on Friday night who had me in stitches with his 'tits on fire' song.
However the evening was ruined by Maeve 'ahm' Higgins standing in for Kumail Nanjiani who unfortunately couldnt make it.
Her 30 minutes felt like 2 hours as she droned on about the biggest load of rubbish ever. I can see she was trying to be surreal but her delivery was terrible, every second word was 'ahm'! She did send a lot of people to the bar to await Reggie but I stuck through it in the vain hope of a joke somewhere but alas there were none.
How in gods name does she get any gigs?!

Agree with your reggie comments, . .Dude is amazing!
I seen Maeve with Tim Key on the Thursday and thought she was quite good. Granted, her pacing isn't exactly quickfire,.. but she's naturally funny and easy to watch, got lots of laffs outta me anyway. Tim Key was excellent also! : )

Exclamation Marc

I really enjoyed the festival. Some standout moments, some forgettable ones.

Thursday night I saw Jarlath Regan and Seann Walsh who were both good. Seann Walsh in particular was absolutely hysterical and would highly recommend seeing him.

Saturday night was a bit different. Went to the International Comedy Club which seemed an absolute mess. Started late (despite there being no shows beforehand). Aidan Bishop was a good MC, Chris Kent was hilarious, Eleanor Tiernan.....just bored the place to sleep, barely any laughter for her (which having seen her support in some capacity 3 or 4 times seems to be a regular occurrence) It absolutely baffles me how she gets on line-ups, as I've never heard a crowd respond to her. Bernard O'Shea was a mix of the somewhat funny and the hugely bizarre and wouldn't leave the stage at the end. Willie White closed out the half and as usual he was his hysterical self.

Then there was a break which when we came back was 6.50. Rory O'Hanlon after the break who was fantastically hilarious followed by an English comedian (name evades me) who was very enjoyable too. At that stage it was 7.20 and my next show started at 7.30 (as was the next show in the same tent as the comedy club). So I missed a couple of comedians as I had to leg it to the next gig, including the heavily advertised Des Bishop (who my mate told me only came on for 3 minutes at the end) because of seemingly terrible organisation. When you only have 3 shows on a day, it shouldn't be hard to make sure the shows don't overlap.

Anyway, after that I saw John Lynn, Tom Stade and Reg D. Hunter. John Lynn is a fantastic MC and comedian and having seen him a lot before, I hope I see a lot more of him. Tom Stade was funny at times but overall he was a huge let down. His 'comedy' just ranged from the shouty outrageous variety to the overly crude. Admittedly I laughed a bit but more often than not I was just staring at the stage.

Then came the unfunny disabled jokes (I've no problem with these types of jokes if they're tasteful, or are funny without being vile. Thoroughly enjoyed Tommy Tiernans routine years ago-which he first got the blessing of Down Syndrome Ireland to use). Just constantly doing impressions of those with Down Syndrome isn't funny if there's no content. Thankfully it finished with Reg D. Hunter, and being my 4th or 5th time seeing him I was not disappointed. Just pure hilariousness and absolutely hypnotic to watch, I loved it.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Saw jarlath Regan and Sean Walsh on thursday night too. I enjoyed them both, found them very funny.

I seen Andrew Stanley a couple of years ago and he used one line on thursday that he'd used the last time :eek: (trying to get a couple to propose to "complete" the show)

The only thing id like to see for next year might be to have an open mic for wannabe comedians to try out their stuff.

All in I really enjoyed it and plan on going back.

eimz.8

Anyone know how long a set lasts at the festival?

cazzer22

You probably should've started a new thread for this one. It was great this year though wasn't it? Sets lasted about 40 minutes for headline acts and most others did 15/20 minute slots :-)