Laughing stock

Maureen Potter

Most famous for her appearances at the Gaiety Theatre, Ms. Potter was probably the first comic in the country to introduce character-based observational humour to Irish audiences. Her monologues as the mother of hapless Dublin pre-teen Christy were innovative in that she talked of the ordinary lives and experiences of her fellow Dublin mothers. The mother of Irish alternative comedy? We reckon so.

Dave Allen

Allen’s skill is that he tells the most preposterous stories with a deadpan seriousness and the comic timing of a master entertainer. His inclusion here is because unlike many other Irish comedians of his era he refused to pander to the ‘Thick Paddy’ stereotype of many of his peers, always displaying a razor sharp intellect. He was also unafraid to criticise the hypocrisy of Christian churches and, with whisky and cigarette in hand, spoke daringly about the Irishman’s dangerous obsession with alcohol. If you want to see Allen’s legacy in action, check out Cookstown comedian and writer Eoin O’Neill on one of his too infrequent live outings.

Hall’s Pictorial Weekly

Incredibly, Frank Hall operated as the Irish film censor while simultaneously creating one of the most controversial television shows, for its time, that RTE has ever broadcast. Hall was joined by theatre stalwarts Frank Kelly (later Fr. Ted’s Fr Jack Hacket) and Eamonn Morrissey (who later adapted and performed a hit stage show based on The Brother writings of Flann O’Brien). The show’s enduring influence was reflected in the radio satire show Scrap Saturday, featuring the writing of Gerry Stembridge, and acts like D’Unbelievables are currently keeping up the tradition of affectionate yet biting rural Irish satire.

Mike Murphy

The Live Mike aired on RTE in the early ‘80s and gave Mike Murphy a platform to experiment with comedy on RTE. Murphy famously caused an irate Gay Byrne to swear on camera. Perhaps most famously, Murphy offered a platform to then budding stand up Dermot Morgan’s Fr. Brian Trendy, an early prototype for writer Arthur Mathews’ Fr. Ted Crilly.

The Late Late Show

Host Gay Byrne often proved a perfect foil for guests who included Spike Milligan, Billy Connolly, Peter Sellars, Rosaleen Linehan, Lenny Henry, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders and a host of other stellar comedians. It was however local man Tommy Tiernan who provided Irish television’s most famous comedy moment when his crucifixion sketch scandalised all right thinking people in the country and caused chaos at the RTE switchboard. Hee-hee-hee

Billy Magrath

One of the country’s first independent comedy promoters, his various ventures in the ’70s and ’80s gave a platform to performers like Michael Redmond, Ian McPherson, Roisín Sheerin (sigh!), Peter Howick (now a columnist for the Evening Herald) Kevin McAleer, Owen Roe and the actor and writer Mannix Flynn as well as a host of others. Magrath is currently Head of Light Entertainment at RTE and has initiated the RTE New Comedy Awards as well as commissioned such shows as Blizzard Of Odd and Xit Poll, both featuring the considerable talents of Northern Irishman Colin Murphy.

Nighthawks

Shay Healy’s blend of chat, music and comedy was, admittedly, a less than perfect success yet it did offer the biting comic talent of Anne Marie Hourihane, currently a writer at The Sunday Tribune.

TV GA GA

Yet another flawed masterpiece from RTE’s comedy stable, our very own Liam Mackey presented this ‘Yoof’ oriented show with considerable aplomb. The live show’s comedy element was frequently risible for all the wrong reasons with comedians drying up at the microphone or being simply painfully unfunny.

The International Comedy Cellar/

The Comedy Improv

NIHE students Barry Murphy, Kevin Gildea and Ardal O’Hanlon, ably assisted by Dermot Carmody, Karl McPherson, Alex Lyons and a legion of other performers, began to host an anarchic comedy night at Dublin’s International Bar. Quite simply, the ’Cellar was, and remains a virtual comedy university, with seasoned hands on offer to guide novice performers through the stand up minefield. Among the dozens of comedians who debuted here are Dylan Moran, Tommy Tiernan, Jason Byrne, Deirdre O’Kane, John Henderson, Nualas’ Sue Collins and Anne Gildea, Morgan Jones, Ian Coppinger, David O’Doherty, Michael Mee, Paddy Courtney and many others.

The Comedy Improv was an off-shoot of the ’Cellar which emerged when a group of regular performers decided to stage a show that would depend entirely on prompts from the audience. The show is currently celebrating its tenth successful year and has recorded live shows for RTE radio. Among the current regulars are Michelle Read, Brendan Dempsey, Tara Flynn, Joe Rooney, Paul Tylak and Eddie Bannon.

The End

Dear oh dear, whatever was this? An RTE show that was irreverent, funny, topical and relevant? At last someone was doing something right. Among the contributors were many of the Comedy Cellar regulars as well as DJ Tom Dunne and our very own Barry Glendenning.

hot press

As well as a committed interest in all things giggly (in 1977 hotpress interviewed Billy Connolly), your faithful organ has also produced some of the country’s finest funny folk. Fr. Ted creators Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan first met here, and Joshua Trio frontman Paul Wonderful, currently trading as Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly also clocked in for some years. Ex HP alumni writer and journalist Damien Corless has recently been contributing sketches to BBC 2’s Big Train and contributor Barry Glendenning continues to perform stand up in the UK. Ex-staffer and Sunday Independent columnist Declan Lynch is about to publish his darkly comic debut novel. Our cartoonist Tom Mathews continues to stage regular exhibitions countrywide.

Sean Hughes

Sean’s Show was a landmark occurrence since he was the first Irish alternative comic to get his own show on British television. He later appeared in Alan Parker’s The Commitments, published a collection of autobiographical essays and poems and also a novel, The Delinquents. Currently a regular on BBC TV’s Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

Brendan O’Carroll

Ireland’s most successful and prolific stand-up comedian, O’Carroll is also a best selling author and playwright. He has taken elements from both mainstream comedy and the more observational, alternative school and in so doing popularised his particular brand of humour with an audience that might previously have seen new comedy as the province of a theatre-attending elite. Although his success is still frowned upon by the more Stalinist of the new breed, one suspects that the man himself couldn’t really give a fuck what they think.

The Kilkenny Cat Laughs Festival

One of the finest comedy festivals anywhere in the world, the Kilkenny Cat Laughs is the brainchild of Richard Cook. Combining the best of Irish and international talent, the festival takes place over the June Bank Holiday weekend.

Fr. Ted

Arguably the greatest Irish comedy series ever produced, this show was the vehicle that allowed the late Dermot Morgan to finally show his true comic genius. Directed by Declan Lowney, the series featured many of Ireland’s emerging talents including Graham Norton, and even name-checked a few

hotpress hacks. The Channel 4 series cocked a snook at antiquated Irish Catholicism and opened a door for many Irish comics who found that success in Britain was made much more feasible by the success of the show. Writers Mathews and Linehan now have a mantelpiece full of awards and have worked with luminaries such as Chris Morris, Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfield. Linehan is currently working on a feature film and Mathews has published a novel, Well Remembered Days. Mrs. Doyle’s Pauline McGlynn has become a best selling author and Fr. Dougal’s Ardal O’Hanlon has also published a novel and has enjoyed a thriving career as a comic actor on British TV.

Après Match

Barry Murphy, Risteard Cooper and Gary Cooke’s take on all things football may well be the funniest show currently on air on RTE. While Mr. Murphy continues to act as a comedy oracle for most young up-and-comers, as well as gigging regularly as Gunther Grum and in other guises. Risteard Cooper continues to add to his reputation as a respected actor. Gary Cooke has been known to take time out to tread the comedy boards as Wally, an odious, cigar-smoking suit who patronises his audience in an exquisite way.

Don’t Feed The Gondolas

OK, it was very far from perfect, but it did showcase the talents of Dara O’ Brian, Kevin McAleer, Des Bishop, Sean Moncrieff and Patrick McDonnell among others. And appearances by Johnny Vegas and Phil Kay were worth the license fee alone.

Couched

Marc Doherty and Barry Murphy’s seminally surreal series divided the nation and the show was, in retrospect, probably a little rich for the blood of of the Irish viewing general public, but hey, we loved it.

Patrick Kielty

The thinking man’s Brendan O’Carroll? Perhaps, but Kielty did prove, and before Graham Norton, that an Irish comedian could compete in the big league of British television and come out on top.

Navan

Navan men Dylan Moran and Tommy Tiernan are two of the finest stand-up comedians in the world and both hail from this Co. Meath backwater. There must be something in the backwater. Tommy is currently in talks with a US production company regarding a sit-com project called Teekyville and Dylan has just co-starred with Michael Caine in his first feature film, following his success with Channel 4’s Black Books.

RTE New Comedy Awards

James Goldsbury, Karl Spain and Neil Delamere are all worthy recipients of RTE’s comedy award and look set for bigger things. Spain is a regular at most Irish comedy clubs, Goldsbury is to headline almost 30 dates at this year’s Edinburgh festival and Delemare has already broken ground in the UK and Europe and is shortly to perform at Liverpool’s comedy festival in the company of Eddie Bannon and Dara O’Briain.

The Laughter Lounge

Currently housed at Dublin’s new Spirit nightclub The Laughter Lounge marries local talent with the cream of stand up from the UK, Europe and the USA. RTE TV also screened a series of live recordings from the venue which proved that for top class variety entertainment all you really have to do is point a camera at some Irish comedy stages. Funny nobody thought of that before…

Paths To Freedom

Although their recent Fergus’s Wedding came in for something of a drubbing at the hands of the critics, and not us, Michael McElhatton and Ian Fitzgibbon’s Paths To Freedom remains a diamond in the abandoned coalmine of RTE’s comedy output.

The New Breed

And still they come… Among the newer names in Irish comedy who have impressed hotpress in recent months are: Michael Downey, Reuben, PJ Gallagher, Naessens & Rooney, Anne Lillis, Neil Delemare, Dermot McMurrow, Dave McSavage, Tommy Nicholson and David O’Doherty. We’ll keep you posted, watch this space…