Laughlines: Your fortnight ahead in comedy...

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld once said absurdity is the primary source of creative energy. The Vodafone Comedy Carnival bound Russian-American comic Euegene Mirman would wholeheartedly agree. 

“Absurdity is the word that best describes what I do,” Mirman says. “But it’s not like I go onstage and yell about a magic cow. It’s all very personable.”
It’s so personable that Mirman’s appeal has extended far and wide beyond the comedy networks of Brooklyn and New York, thanks to roles on Flight of the Conchords and the animated US comedy hit Bob’s Burger.
Mirman has also regularly opened for some of the biggest names in American alternative music.
“As it happens I have a music booking agent,” Mirman reveals. “When I first moved to New York, I met her and she asked me to open for The Shins. From there I did shows with Modest Mouse.”
“I’ve toured with Yo La Tengo and they in general do tons of different stuff with comedians. There is a huge crossover between musicians and comedians and you’ll find that in places like Portland too.”
“Musicians admire comedians and comedians admire musicians. In New York and Los Angeles, especially, there’s an endless array of informal shows where people can try stuff out. “
Sounds wonderful, although there doesn’t seem to quite the same cross-pollination between the music and comedy on this side of the Atlantic.
“Really?” Eugene exclaims. “Does David O’Doherty not live with The Pogues?”
The mind boggles. On the subject of Ireland, with a name like Eugene, does Mirman have any Celtic connections?
“That’s an interesting one as I certainly don’t claim it as a typical Russian name,” he answers. “I was born in Russia and I’m Jewish, so I don’t know how much my roots are in any way Celtic. I believe it was a very popular name back in the ’50s. It is based on the name Eugenia, but I don’t think you have many ladies called that in Ireland.”
Brooklynite Mirman was jokingly branded “the comedian King of Hipsterville” by novelist and radio host Kurt Andersen. 
“It’s because every night for dinner I eat a tiny hipster,” Mirman jokes. “I think it has do with me being on Sub Pop Records, doing a lot of shows in New York rock clubs and having a a very DIY approach.”
“It’s not like I’m Eugene ‘Hipster King’ Mirman. If you’d introduced me as America’s biggest asshole, it probably would’ve be funnier.”
It seems to be an unacknowledged truth of modern culture that it’s far more hip to sneer at hipsters than to actually be one.
“I really don’t care about all that,” Mirman laughs. “Some of the things that some people think are absolutely wonderful will be completely pompous to others. It’s like beatnik culture. Some of it was about people getting high and being lazy, but a lot of it was amazing.”
Mirman’s unorthodox approach to stand up and deadpan delivery stands out from the rest of the pack. His approach to grafting his craft was somewhat unusual, as he essentially majored in comedy in a “choose your own major scheme” in the distinguished Hampshire College in Massachusetts, whose alumni also include Grizzly Bear singer Ed Droste and Anti Pop Consortium’s Mike Ladd.
“It was fantastic,” Mirman enthuses. “It was very practical and extremely beneficial in that I had all the benefits of a broad liberal arts education alongside the opportunity to specialize specifically for my needs.”
“For the practical side of my thesis, I had to develop an hour long stand up set. It might seem weird to go to college to study comedy, but it was great. I wrote for the college newspaper, put on comedy shows in the dorms and did some radio shows. I learnt enormously about the whole process of being a comedian. It became a bedrock for what I do today.”
Mirman’s comic adventures are bringing him back to the Iveagh Gardens. “I had super fun when I played it before. There aren’t loads of festivals in tents in a park and it’s actually very lovely. Each festival has something that makes it fun, or something that makes a person do it regardless. Well, the Dublin one is a lot of fun.”
Eugene is highly qualified to know, as he ran his own bespoke comedy festival in Brooklyn that featured a slam poet that punters could throw water balloons at, amongst other quirky attractions. 
“My thinking is that you can pretty much do anything, as long as it works,” he states. “I used to think that the whole thing is hit and miss. Sometimes people get it, but sometimes they don’t. Then, I realized that it is my job and responsibility to convey to people that what I think is funny is funny,”
Mirman succinctly concludes: “The main purpose of comedy is to get the audience around to whatever your weird point of view is.”

Eugene Mirman plays the Vodafone Comedy Carnival in the Iveagh Gardens on Thursday, Friday and Saturday July 25-27.