FOR KARL Spain, the return to live comedy, and especially the return to indoor gigs, is “akin to Italia 90 - without the climbing up on cars and big crowds hugging each other, we can't do that yet - but that kind of euphoria”.
It began in August with those comedy shows at Pearse Stadium, and come Tuesday October 19 it continues with the Galway Comedy Festival, with more than 80 artists coming west to bring the chuckles, chortles, and cheers to eight venues in Galway city.
“It feels like we’re at the end, that we’re coming back into a normal situation,” Karl tells me during our Monday afternoon conversation. “And this year will be special for a lot of comics who haven’t seen each other for a while. It will also be a new feeling.”
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“For comedy, the live show is the best. It’s a moment. The tragedy is that once it’s over it exists only in people’s memories, but there is nothing like the feeling of the energy of the people in the room. Something happens in that room. I don’t like to use the term magical, but that’s what it is. It’s a joy to be back, and seeing other comedians - it’s better than on Zoom or over the phone.”
Yet, prior to live comedy’s return, it was Zoom and the comedy shows from the Róisín Dubh, hosted by Karl via that technology, that helped to keep spirits up and laughter ringing throughout the lockdowns, and the Limerick man is well aware of what those shows meant to audiences.
“I think people really appreciated them,” he said. “We had a ‘front row’ of about 20/30 people, they were our virtual audience, and the rest were watching via YouTube. As an MC you talk to them, and after the show we would stay chatting, often until one o’clock in the morning. People were missing people, and those after show chats were like being in a pub. It was about connecting with people, you used the term 'uplifting spirits’, and I think that’s correct. They certainly uplifted mine.”
The festival returns
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The Galway Comedy Festival runs from October 15 to 25 and in a world of Brexit, Boris Johnson, post-Trump, Bolsonaro, climate change, the US retreat from Afghanistan, and that Katherine Zappone controversy there is much to satirise and plenty for comedians get their teeth into - but is Covid likely to feature? Is it still ‘too soon’ for jokes about the pandemic?
“It’s an interesting question,” Karl replies. “I have a couple of jokes about it, but I try not to mention Covid, but people know it’s related to it. Some comedians will talk about their personal experiences, and for some, the pandemic has been traumatic, so it might be good to laugh at it, but it will be interesting to see, if, in two years time, there are any comedians talking about it.”
Karl has been a mainstay of the festival since its earliest days in the mid-noughties, and has been well placed to see its extraordinary growth from a small event, to a national festival that is perhaps second only to the Galway International Arts Festival in terms of its importance and scale in the Galway cultural calendar.
“The growth has been huge,” says Karl. “When we did the TV programme in 2019, Laughter In The Eyre, we were talking to Pearse Doherty who was involved in the very first festival back in 2005 or 2006, and we were looking at the flyers for that festival and there were only a few gigs. It’s fascinating to compare that to what it has grown into since. At this rate, give it another 15 years and every gig will have to be in Pearse Stadium, with Ed Sheeran doing support!
“Galway provides the best atmosphere. I think that’s because of the multiple theatre groups, and Macnas, and that people are used to going to theatres. In many places, people will chat during the shows, but not Galway, and the city has that good reputation. I often meet comics who say ‘Get me to Galway and the festival’, but I have to tell them, ‘It’s not me booking it’.”
Late night laughs
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Of course Karl is the host of one of the festival’s great institutions, and regular highlights - The Late Night KARLnival, where possibly any comedian may turn up, to deliver sets that are darker, more risque, sillier, or wilder, than their regular sets. There have been many memorable such nights at the KARLnival. Which have stood out most for Karl?
“I remember when John Bishop popped up, and I did a jokey introduction about the time he was in a TV drama, Accused, and I said he was miscast as the father of Robert Sheehan, as Robert Sheehan is very good looking, and then he talked for about 10 minutes about the show and what it was like to be on it. He was just this raconteur and it was genuinely impressive, only afterwards when he got off stage did he tell me, ‘Thanks, I’d no idea what I was going to talk about until you did that intro.’
“I’ve so many favourite memories - Seann Walsh doing his Michael MacIntyre impersonation; Abandoman getting three standing ovations; Barry Murphy and Ian Cappinger getting up and singing a hymn…They have all been brilliant, but I keep going in each night saying ‘Oh please don’t let this be the one that isn’t’, but it always meets the standard.”
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The KARLnival will undoubtedly provide many more memorable nights in 2021, but aside from that, who and what else is Karl looking forward to seeing at the festival?
“Glenn Wool, who is my favourite comedian,” he says, “and Ed Byrne, who I supported 10 years ago. I loved watching him, I saw him 36 nights in a row and it was an education. He did an improv section, where he asked the audience questions, and it was different every night. Rich Hall always has a lovely take on what is going on in the world, and Nina Conti, she is brilliant. I remember people were saying that ventriloquism was a bit naff, and then she came along and showed them it is not!”
The host with the most
Karl is a master MC, bringing together his own comedy (he also writes for other comedians ), batner with the audience, an irreverent attitude, and an ability to improvise, into a brilliant comedy whole.
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“I remember, about 15 years ago, talking to Tommy Tiernan backstage at Vicar Street,” says Karl. “He had started doing improv on stage, and I was asking him if he was not afraid about not knowing where he was going, and he said, ‘If you leap a safety net always appears’.
“That stayed with me. It was about being brave, and even if nothing appears, it’s about developing the skills to work it into something else, but you will always find something. So sometimes, when I utter a joke, the first time I will hear it will be the first time it leaves my mouth on the stage that night, and it’s been good. I like the unknown.
“Sometimes I feel I should stay away from the negative introductions, especially about Fred Cooke, but I’ve come up with two new ones about him...It’s about weaving it all together, talking to the audience, who is on, the atmosphere, and connecting it all up to make it look like it’s planned.”
Tickets for the livestream gala and for all other events at the festival tickets are on sale from www.GalwayComedyFestival.ie and the ticket desk at OMG on Shop Street (091 - 509960 ). See social media @galwaycomedy.
