Many of the shows at this year's Galway Comedy Festival are filling up quickly, but fear not! There's plenty more where that came from...
There remains a variety of shows to whet every comedy appetite, such as Steve Steen’s Improv Workshop, YouTube Tennis, Poetry, Phill Jupitus’ Sketch Comic, Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience, and the annual Toilet Duck competition celebrating emerging talent.
Improv is comedy without a safety net: no script, no pre-planned jokes, and no idea what might happen. It demands quick thinking, an openness to ideas, and a real sense of mischief.
Comedy fans who have watched The Improv All Stars and thought, ‘I’d love to have a go at that’, will get their chance with “Yes, And…” Steve Steen’s Improv Workshop in the Pálás Cinema on Friday, October 21, at 12pm. This interactive workshop, teaching the tricks of the trade through easy and fun games, is open to everyone, and all levels of experience, not just aspiring comedians.
Film and quiz fans rejoice, as Galway’s WOMP Events present The GREAT BIG BIG SCREEN QUIZ on the opening night of the festival. This will be a celebration of the silver screen, cult classics and fan favourite films.
With trivia, photo, video and quote rounds, this will be a multimedia mish-mash of dozens of the most popular movies of all time, with each round focusing on a different movie genre in the Pálás Cinema for a whole new kind of quiz night.
Poetry and Comedy join forces through Phill Jupitus’ Porky The Poet Presents… in The Loft at Seven on Saturday, October 25 at 7.30pm.
It is sure to be an evening of verse, rhymes, and good times with Irish comedy legend Barry Murphy, Jan Brierton, a regular guest poet on RTÉ Radio 1’s The Ray Darcy Show; Galway’s rising comedy star and spoken word artist Aoife Dunne; and David Hynes, co-founder of The Poetry Kiln, The Rising Tide, and A-musing.
Phil and Barry Murphy reunite on Sunday, October 26, at 12.30pm, in The Ruby Room at The King’s Head for YouTube Tennis, a fast-paced visual ping-pong ding-dong that may end with a sing-song, a show of back and forth, word associations, and call and answer, as the pair attempt to break the World Record for improvising a whole comedy show, one word each at a time.
Phill will also give comedy audiences the chance to discover their inner artist as well during the Festival, when he brings his wonderful Sketch Comic event back to Róisín Dubh on Sunday, October 26, at 3.30pm.
There is also Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience on Wednesday and Thursday, October 22 and 23 in The Hardiman Hotel at 7pm and Friday an Saturday, October 24 and 25 in The Salthill Hotel at 7pm, where you will be served a three course meal and all the mayhem and laughs it is possible to have in the company of Basil, Sybil, and Manuel.
The 2026 Tedfest Toilet Duck Awards takes place in The Loft at Seven, Bridge Street, on Saturday, October 25, at 2.30pm. It is a stand-up comedy competition where eight comedians battle it out for a cash prize, paid club and festival gigs around Ireland, and the Toilet Duck trophy.
