THERE IS little more than a week to go to the start of the 2018 Vodafone Comedy Carnival Galway and this year’s star studded festival is shaping up to be an absolute belter.
It begins on Tuesday October 23 with Dylan Moran’s new show, Dr Cosmos, in Leisureland. The Guardian has called the show "top drawer stand-up from this past master of the art form". The Thursday and Friday shows are already sold out but there are a handful of tickets left for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Jason Byrne's Tuesday show at the Róisín Dubh is completely sold out, but fans of anarchic comedy should not despair because George Egg, the DIY chef, is performing some culinary anarchy in The Mick Lally Theatre on Tuesday as well (7.45pm ). He will serve an inspiring and inventive evening of comedic live cooking, preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner using a wallpaper stripper, a heat gun, paper shredder, power tools, office equipment, hair-dressing appliances, and gardening implements - and the audience gets to eat the food at the end.
Another unusual gig is Comedy Bingo in The Skeff (Tuesday 23, 7.30pm ), hosted by Irish Comedian of the Year Steve Bennett and singer-songwriter Steven Sharpe. This will be a high energy gameshow with prizes (including tickets to other comedy shows during the week ), mystery boxes, and good craic. Expect musical bingo, picture bingo, to traditional bingo, but with all the wrong calls.
The Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent on Wednesday 24 hosts the opening gala, featuring Rhys Darby from Flight of the Conchords, and the hilarious Joel Dommett, runner up in 2016’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. The rest of town should be rolling in the aisles as well, with Al Murray's Work In Progress show at the Town Hall, while the Róisín Dubh and Seven host shows by Gina Yashere, Glenn Wool, Andrew Maxwell, Terry Alderton, and Phill Jupitus.
Also, not to be missed is the mighty Zoe Lyons, performing her Entry Level Human show in The Mick Lally Theatre on Wednesday 24 at 8pm. This Mock The Week regular is hugely enjoyable, has brutal putdowns and her acclaimed show is crammed full of quick-fire observational gags and proper laugh-out-loud one-liners.
Tickets and information are via vodafonecomedycarnival.com
