- Culture
- 16 Sep 03
John Henderson explains why, for all its faults, Irish comedy can still save lives
Hmm, write about the Irish comedy scene, they said. Easier said than done.
Like the Muslim Drinking Scene, the Star Trek Fans Shagging Scene and the South American Pygmies’ Basketball Scene, the Irish Comedy scene is a bit of a non-entity, I’m afraid. Unless you consider a handful of bitter, badly dressed persons clapping each other on the back for reaching the dizzying heights of extreme averageness, a scene.
But let’s not dwell on the negative sides of Irish Comedy. Let us examine some of its more positive aspects. I have long maintained that Irish Comedy does save lives. You see, over the years I have seen a variety of unbalanced would-be psychopaths insisting on repeatedly taking to Irish comedy stages. Now these people obviously woke up one morning and decided they were going to try their hand at stand-up comedy. I feel that some of these people could just have well woken up that same morning and decided they were going to buy a gun and head down to the local SuperValu. So no matter what oral torture comedy audiences have been submitted to over the years, it’s a small price to pay for the saving of so many innocent lives and for that the people of Ireland must be eternally grateful. I believe the country owes a similar debt of gratitude to Charlie Lansborough. For I think that anyone who wakes up in the morning and decides to buy a Charlie Lansborough CD or a ticket to one of his concerts must be similarly unhinged.
Anyway the thing about describing Irish Comedy as a scene or even a statement is too sweeping and ambiguous. It’s not like music where it can be compartmentalised into groups like Hip Hop or Country and Western or movements like New Wave or Britpop. Even if you asked someone what they think of Irish music they would probably denounce the question as ridiculous. And they’d be right. They might say, well, I like The Thrills but The Corrs are shite. In fact, it’s almost certain they’d say the Corrs are shite even if it was Irish writers you were enquiring about. “Well I like Joyce but hey aren’t the Corrs shite!”
You see, the thing is it shouldn’t be about Irish comedy. It should be about good comedy and bad comedy. Dylan Moran and Mark Doherty may be two of the funniest people ever born but just because they were born in Ireland it doesn’t mean that every twat who takes to the comedy stage and talks about Westlife or his own hole is part of the new wave of Irish comedy genius.
So what is going on? Dublin has few small clubs scattered about the centre and suburbs the listings for which I’m sure can be found somewhere in this quality publication. The fact that the hub of Dublin comedy still centres around the International Bar is both fantastic and extremely sad. Cork used to have what was unanimously agreed to be the best comedy club in the country at City Limits. Then everybody seemed to unanimously decide it wasn’t and stopped going … or something. The owner still runs comedy there every couple months or so but seems to have a policy that advertising or telling anybody about the gig takes all the sport out of drawing an audience or maybe the only patrons he likes to attract to his club are eagle-eyed comedy die hards with Sherlock Holmes type investigative powers and second sight. Either way it’s still the best club around so keep your eyes peeled. For the best comedy in Ireland at the moment head west. Galway’s Cuba bar houses the always wonderful Tom & Gerry show. Limerick has a thriving comedy scene. Mainly because the promoter there Keith Pigott who has been running great gigs in Limerick for years happens to have a head on his shoulders. If more promoters were like him and more comedians were like Tommy Tiernan or then we may be able to use the words Irish, Comedy and Scene in a sentence with neither a hint of sarcasm or venom.
If you want to be bedazzled further come see me perform one of my increasingly irregular gigs in Vicar St on Sept 7th with the increasingly irregular talents of PJ Gallagher and regularly increasing talents of Jason Byrne. Or if you couldn’t be arsed leaving the house, listen to my radio show Henderson’s History of the World Part 2 broadcast on Radio One on Saturday mornings. In a world where mediocrity is King it’s not as good as some and better than most.