Although Dublin is generally viewed as the centre of Ireland’s comedy scene, stand-up is in rude health all around the country, no more so than in Cork. One of the leading comics to have emerged from the Leeside comedy scene is Chris Kent, a one-time electrician whose career currently finds him gigging all over Ireland, and also contributing to Neil Delamere’s Saturday morning radio show, The 2nd Republic.

“There’s a good little stand-up scene in Cork,” notes Chris. “There are good comedians, and a nice variation of bigger and smaller clubs. Cork city is big enough too, so it’s definitely a good place to start. I’d be very grateful to City Limits, where I got a lot of stage time – I was there practically every week. I still go back and play it every now and again, and I’ve played the Opera House as well.”
Another Corkonian stand-up currently doing well on the Irish circuit is Ross Browne, who’s similarly enthusiastic about the city.
“It’s great, because you’re not saturated with a thousand comedians like you are in Dublin,” he says. “You have a little community of comedians, and that’s really good in the beginning, because you learn from the guys who are higher up, and you can help the guys who are lower down. Also, you can travel to Dublin together and double-book gigs, whereas in Dublin it isn’t the same, because everyone’s just fighting to get five minutes of stage time. In Cork, you can get a second week if you’ve got new material, so it’s really good that way.”
Indeed, Browne is now resident MC at City Limits, although he explains that he performed his first gig in Galway – and at rather short notice.
“I went to see Tommy Tiernan at City Limits in Cork, and I approached him after the gig,” he recalls. “I talked to him about getting into stand-up, and miraculously, he said, ‘Oh yeah, my support runs a club in Galway, and he’ll give you ten minutes.’ I had no material written or anything, so I had to go away and write ten minutes. After that, my parents bumped into Des Bishop and said, ‘Our son did a gig in Galway, he’s looking for more gigs.’ He said, ‘I’ll give him ten minutes in The International.’
“But at that first gig in Galway, I think it was just ten minutes of me making noises and doing body shapes. Which is kind of my set now, but there’s forty minutes of it! I mainly just did audience interaction, which was a baptism of fire. It was like the bones of stand-up, but there was no actual meat on it. And then I wrote loads of shit material, but within that hour of crap, there was probably five or ten minutes of half-decent stuff. You’re mining for gold.”
Oddly enough, the ubiquitous Des Bishop – who himself, of course, also lived in Cork for a number of years – was also influential in Chris Kent getting into stand-up.
“I took an interest when Des Bishop did Joy In The Hood in Knocknaheeney,” he reflects. “I didn’t actually take part in the programme, but I used to go and watch the smaller comedy gigs then. And then one day, I thought I’d give it a try. I took it up as a hobby really, but then I did it more and more, and realised that it was what I wanted to do.”
Chris’s current show Plugged In, which he’s planning to bring to Edinburgh later this year for his first Fringe stint, draws in part on his experiences as an electrician.
“There is that, and I talk about the transition from electrician to comedian,” he says. “I’ve got a bit in the show about my travelling as well, but the loose theme is the electrical thing. To be honest, I’m not trying to go with any theme in particular, but if I had to pick one, it would be that. Because I was an electrician I did a lot of travelling, and I have a lot of material about that, so it ties in on that side.”
As well as finessing Plugged In, of late Chris has been a regular on the aforementioned 2nd Republic, his first experience of the panel show format.
“It’s brilliant, I’ve really been enjoying it,” he enthuses. “It’s good fun, you go in every week and make your own laws in front of a live audience, so it’s good to be part of it. We did the pilot before Christmas, and then four of them got commissioned. It’s still daunting in a way, but I thrive on it – it’s good experience. It’s been well-received; it was No. 1 on the iTunes podcast charts yesterday. Obviously, you’re hoping more of them to get made.”
For his part, Browne has contributed to a radio pilot for BBC Northern Ireland, and regularly uploads comedy clips to YouTube. In general, he’s been inspired by physical comedy of the sort purveyed by Jim Carrey and Lee Evans, which he acknowledges may not be the hippest influences, but whose mastery of the form he has always admired.
“A lot of comedians might snigger at the mention of Lee Evans, because the cooler thing to say is Bill Hicks or Sam Kinison,” observes Ross. “But when I was younger I was into Lee Evans; the physicality and the performance of it, and the voices and so on. I suppose physicality is an important part of comedy for me, because I always think, ‘Why isn’t that person presenting the joke the best way they possibly can?’ I understand now that there are different types of comedy – I don’t expect Stewart Lee to be doing cartwheels, because that’s not what he does. Stewart Lee is fantastic, and I do enjoy other styles of comedy, but I always gravitate towards the thing that is silly, but clever-silly, not stupid-silly.
“I could be talking murder or death, but I’ll take the edge off it by making it as stupid as possible. Even though I’m making a point, I’m taking the edge off it. I think a lot of comedians go for that edge, and they do so-called ‘dark’ comedy – but they still haven’t found out what makes funny things funny.”