Once again the cats have had the last laugh and after a weekend of laughter, craic, and a lot more, the comedians have once again left town for another year.
And although we hate to see them go — we know it’s for the best. The madness cannot go on forever. At some point it must all come to a natural end and Monday evening/Tuesday morning is this point in time.
This year’s festival enticed a large crowd and although the festival was scaled back somewhat with fewer comedians, venues and the notable absence of a sponsor — there was no shortage of laughs and this is what this festival is all about.
There was great praise for several of the new performance acts this year including The Horne Section, Abandonment and of course Limerick’s best, The Rubberbandits — these acts went down well with packed audiences. Other highlights of the weekend were U-Tube hot-shot Bo Burnham who took to the stage on several occasions endearing audiences with his random thoughts on various subjects and his guitar and keyboard-playing skills.
Jason Byrne just never disappoints and there wasn’t a dry eye in any of the venues while he was on stage. Tommy Tiernan is another dead cert for an Irish audience and Andrew Maxwell got a huge response to his show which saw him carry a cock of the pheasant variety, under his arm for the duration of the performance on Sunday night at the Ormonde Hotel.
Other Irish acts that audiences warmed to were Keith Farnham of Cork, Eric Lalor of Dublin, Karl Spain of Limerick, Neil Delamere, Ardal O’ Hanlon and Ian Coppinger. Hector also made his debut to a huge welcome.
Aussie comedians, Tom Gleeson and Will Anderson somewhat made up for the absence of the much-loved Adam Hills who brought Australian comedy to the Marble City many moons ago. Both had Irish audiences in the palms of their hands.
The UK and the US comedians were also well received with John Richardson and Sarah Milican delivering top class comedy over the weekend. Rich Hall is an old favourite of the festival and he never fails to make an impression — this year was no different.
Artistic director of the festival Rebecca Austin told the Kilkenny Advertiser that although funds were tighter than normal this year, organisers were thrilled with the feedback from the weekend.
“Although we had to be very clever with funds this year, we still managed to have a fantastic weekend of comedy. There was a great buzz around for the weekend and once again we really tried to bring something different to the festival with groups such as the Horne Section and the Rubberbandits. They were a huge success and we will certainly be looking towards expanding on this next year,” she said.
