Cat Laughs
Encyclopedia
The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival is a comedy
festival
held over the first weekend in June each year in Kilkenny
, Ireland
. It was founded in 1994 in response to the burgeoning wealth of Irish comic talent with no clear national outlet for expression. It is known as a more intimate and laid back festival as there is no competition between the comedians to win awards or sell tickets to shows.
The festival has grown from a small event comprising a handful of performances to an internationally acclaimed festival which showcases the very best in Irish and international comedy acts, attracting visitors to Kilkenny city and its surrounding regions through the unusual combination of professionally managed world class entertainment in the atmospheric setting of the charming medieval city.
The primary sponsor of the 2009 festival was Carlsberg, with Smithwick's
and Murphy's Irish Stout
sponsoring previous festivals. The world-class programme blends the top Irish and international talent in shows featuring globally renowned comic stars as well as newcomers and break-through acts. The festival features mainly stand-up comedy
performances but has also played host to other forms of comedy including readings by comedy authors, exhibitions of cartoonists, film screenings followed by Q and A sessions with stars/directors, short films and also silent era films with live piano accompaniment.
Some of the many world renowned comedians to have appeared at the festival over the years include Bill Murray
, Eddie Izzard
, Lewis Black
, Rich Hall
, Dom Irrera
, George Wendt
, Dan Castellaneta
, Paul Merton
, Zach Galifianakis
, Mike Wilmot
, Dara Ó Briain
, Bill Bailey
, Dylan Moran
, Simon Amstell
, Russell Howard
, Noel Fielding
, Sean Lock
, Ricky Gervais
, Andy Parsons
, Patton Oswalt
, Stephen Fry
, Doug Stanhope
, David Cross
, Adam Hills
, Tommy Tiernan
, Demetri Martin
, Alan Carr
, Denis Leary
, Omid Djalili
, Emo Philips
, Frankie Boyle
, Reginald D. Hunter, Eddie Murphy
, Colin Murphy
, Ross Noble
, Lee Mack
, Barry Murphy, Jimmy Carr
, David O'Doherty
, Ed Byrne
, Des Bishop
, Ardal O'Hanlon
, Daniel Kitson
, Stewart Francis
, Jason Byrne
, Hans Teeuwen
, John Bishop
, Deirdre O'Kane
, Michael McIntyre
, Alan Davies
, Karl Spain
, Stewart Lee
, Jo Brand
, Neil Delamere, and Andrew Maxwell
.
There is also a traditional soccer match held on the Sunday afternoon between the Irish comedians and those from the Rest of the World. There is no charge to go and watch the game and Karl Spain
usually provides humorous commentary over the loudspeaker system.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
festival
Festival
A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....
held over the first weekend in June each year in Kilkenny
Kilkenny
Kilkenny is a city and is the county town of the eponymous County Kilkenny in Ireland. It is situated on both banks of the River Nore in the province of Leinster, in the south-east of Ireland...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. It was founded in 1994 in response to the burgeoning wealth of Irish comic talent with no clear national outlet for expression. It is known as a more intimate and laid back festival as there is no competition between the comedians to win awards or sell tickets to shows.
The festival has grown from a small event comprising a handful of performances to an internationally acclaimed festival which showcases the very best in Irish and international comedy acts, attracting visitors to Kilkenny city and its surrounding regions through the unusual combination of professionally managed world class entertainment in the atmospheric setting of the charming medieval city.
The primary sponsor of the 2009 festival was Carlsberg, with Smithwick's
Smithwick's
Smithwick's is an Irish red ale style beer from Kilkenny in Ireland. Smithwick's is listed in the top five best tasting beers by the McHale beer rating club of Ireland. As of Autumn 2010, Smithwicks continues to be brewed in Dundalk and Kilkenny but tankers are sent to Dublin to be kegged for the...
and Murphy's Irish Stout
Murphy's Irish Stout
Murphy's Irish Stout is a dry stout brewed in County Cork according to the original recipe by Murphy's Brewery since 1856.In comparison to its heavier and more bitter chief competitors, Guinness and Beamish, Murphy's is a lighter and sweeter dry stout. Its flavour is evocative of caramel and malt,...
sponsoring previous festivals. The world-class programme blends the top Irish and international talent in shows featuring globally renowned comic stars as well as newcomers and break-through acts. The festival features mainly stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
performances but has also played host to other forms of comedy including readings by comedy authors, exhibitions of cartoonists, film screenings followed by Q and A sessions with stars/directors, short films and also silent era films with live piano accompaniment.
Some of the many world renowned comedians to have appeared at the festival over the years include Bill Murray
Bill Murray
William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
, Eddie Izzard
Eddie Izzard
Edward John "Eddie" Izzard is a British stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime...
, Lewis Black
Lewis Black
Lewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena...
, Rich Hall
Rich Hall
Richard "Rich" Hall is an American comedian, writer and musician.-Early life and career:Hall was born in Alexandria, Virginia and grew up in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He is part Cherokee Indian...
, Dom Irrera
Dom Irrera
Domenick Jack Irrera , originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a stand-up comedian. Much of his material is in the form of stories about his life, especially his childhood years and growing up in an Italian-American family, which contributes to the "natural" feel of his...
, George Wendt
George Wendt
George Robert Wendt III is an American actor, best known for the roles of Norm Peterson and Tug Clarke on the television shows Cheers and Modern Men.-Early life:...
, Dan Castellaneta
Dan Castellaneta
Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble,...
, Paul Merton
Paul Merton
Paul Merton is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy...
, Zach Galifianakis
Zach Galifianakis
Zachary Knight "Zach" Galifianakis is an American stand-up comedian and actor known for his numerous film and television appearances including his own Comedy Central Presents special...
, Mike Wilmot
Mike Wilmot
Mike Wilmot is a Canadian stand-up comedian. In 2005 he won two Canadian Comedy Awards for best male stand-up and best actor for his work in It's All Gone Pete Tong....
, Dara Ó Briain
Dara Ó Briain
Dara Ó Briain is an Irish stand-up comedian and television presenter, noted for hosting topical panel shows such as The Panel and Mock the Week....
, Bill Bailey
Bill Bailey
Bill Bailey is an English comedian, musician and actor. As well as his extensive stand-up work, Bailey is well known for his appearances on Black Books, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI.Bailey was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in...
, Dylan Moran
Dylan Moran
Dylan Moran is an Irish stand-up comedian, writer, actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his sardonic observational comedy, the UK television sitcom Black Books , and his work with Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead and Run Fatboy Run...
, Simon Amstell
Simon Amstell
Simon Marc Amstell is a BAFTA nominated, award-winning English comedian, television presenter, screenwriter and actor, best known for his roles as former co-host of Popworld, former host of Never Mind the Buzzcocks and co-writer and star of the sitcom Grandma's House.-Early life:Amstell was born...
, Russell Howard
Russell Howard
Russell Joseph Howard is an English comedian best known for his TV show Russell Howard's Good News and his appearances on the topical panel TV show Mock The Week...
, Noel Fielding
Noel Fielding
Noel Fielding is a British artist, comedian and actor. He is known for his roles as Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh, which he co-writes with comedy partner Julian Barratt, and as team captain on the music panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks.-Stand-up comedy:Noel Fielding performed regularly as a...
, Sean Lock
Sean Lock
Sean Lock is an English comedian and actor. He began his comedy career as a stand-up comedian. He won the British Comedy Award in 2000 in the category of Best Live Comic, and was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. He is also well known for his appearances on television and radio...
, Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
, Andy Parsons
Andy Parsons
Andy Parsons is an English comedian and writer, who regularly appears on Mock the Week. With comedy partner Henry Naylor, he has written and presented nine seasons of Parsons and Naylor’s Pull-Out Sections for BBC Radio 2.-Early life:...
, Patton Oswalt
Patton Oswalt
Patton Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and voice actor. He is best known for portraying Spencer Olchin in the popular sitcom The King of Queens, voicing Remy from the film Ratatouille and Thrasher from the Cartoon Network original series Robotomy.-Early life:Oswalt was born...
, Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
, Doug Stanhope
Doug Stanhope
Douglas Gene "Doug" Stanhope is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and author known for his abrasive comedy routines.-Life and career:Stanhope quit high school after his freshman year...
, David Cross
David Cross
David Cross is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian perhaps best known for his work on HBO's sketch comedy series Mr...
, Adam Hills
Adam Hills
Adam Hills is an Australian comedian and television presenter. He has appeared on Australian and British television and is best known for his role hosting the Australian ABC music trivia show Spicks and Specks...
, Tommy Tiernan
Tommy Tiernan
Tommy Tiernan is an Irish comedian, actor and writer. He and Hector Ó hEochagáin present The Tommy and Hector Show on i102-104FM. Tiernan also featured in Father Ted.-Early life:...
, Demetri Martin
Demetri Martin
Demetri Martin is an American comedian, actor, artist, musician, writer and humorist. Martin is best known for his work as a stand-up comedian, contributor on The Daily Show and for his Comedy Central show Important Things with Demetri Martin.- Early life :Demetri Martin was born to a Greek...
, Alan Carr
Alan Carr
Alan Carr is an English comedian and television personality. Born in Weymouth, he was raised in Northampton before moving to Manchester during his early 20's....
, Denis Leary
Denis Leary
Denis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...
, Omid Djalili
Omid Djalili
Omid Djalili is a British Iranian stand-up comedian, actor, television producer and writer.-Personal life:Djalili was born in Chelsea, London to Iranian Bahá'í parents and is a Bahá'í himself...
, Emo Philips
Emo Philips
Emo Philips is an American entertainer and comedian born in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove. Much of his standup comedy stems from the use of paraprosdokians and garden path sentences spoken in a wandering falsetto tone of voice and a confused, childlike delivery of his material to produce the...
, Frankie Boyle
Frankie Boyle
Francis Martin Patrick "Frankie" Boyle is a British comedian and writer, well known for his pessimistic, often controversial sense of humour...
, Reginald D. Hunter, Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
, Colin Murphy
Colin Murphy (comedian)
Colin Murphy is an Irish comedian. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland but now lives in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland. He is best known for his television work hosting and co-writing The Blizzard of Odd, The Unbelievable Truth, and as resident panelist on The Panel for RTÉ and The Blame Game...
, Ross Noble
Ross Noble
Ross Markham Noble is an English stand-up comedian, brought up in Cramlington, Northumberland, England.Noble rose to mainstream popularity through making appearances on British television, particularly interviews and on celebrity quiz shows such as Have I Got News for You...
, Lee Mack
Lee Mack
Lee Gordon McKillop is an English stand-up comedian and actor, known by the stage name Lee Mack. He is well known in the United Kingdom for writing and starring in the sitcom Not Going Out, for being a team captain on Would I Lie to You? and for hosting Lee Mack's All Star Cast.-Personal life:Mack...
, Barry Murphy, Jimmy Carr
Jimmy Carr
James Anthony Patrick "Jimmy" Carr is an English-Irish comedian and humourist. He is known for his deadpan delivery and dark humour. He is also a writer, actor and presenter of radio and television....
, David O'Doherty
David O'Doherty
David Nicholas O'Doherty is a Perrier Award winning Irish stand-up comedian, author, musician, actor and playwright. His stand-up has won two awards at the Edinburgh Fringe, Best Newcomer first of all and the if.comedy award in 2008 for his show Let's Comedy. He has been nominated twice more for...
, Ed Byrne
Ed Byrne
Ed Byrne is a Perrier Award-nominated, Irish stand-up comedian, voice over artist and actor. He has presented television shows Uncut! Best Unseen Ads and Just for Laughs, and is a regular guest on various television panel games...
, Des Bishop
Des Bishop
Des Bishop is an Irish comedian and was brought up in New York. He is now primarily based in Ireland, after moving to County Wexford in 1990 at the age of 14.-Approach to Comedy:...
, Ardal O'Hanlon
Ardal O'Hanlon
Ardal O'Hanlon is an Irish comedian and actor, best known for his roles in television sitcoms as Father Dougal McGuire in Father Ted and George Sunday in My Hero.-Early life:...
, Daniel Kitson
Daniel Kitson
Daniel Kitson is an English stand-up comedian.-Career:Born to a lecturer father and primary school head teacher mother, Kitson began performing comedy at the age of 16. He was a pupil at Scissett Middle School and Shelley College in Yorkshire, England...
, Stewart Francis
Stewart Francis
Stewart Francis is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor and writer. In addition to his work in Canada and the USA, he frequently tours in the UK and appears on British television...
, Jason Byrne
Jason Byrne (comedian)
Jason Byrne is an Irish comedian born in Ballinteer, Dublin, Ireland. In August 2008, he made his twelfth Edinburgh Fringe Festival appearance and is a regular at the Kilkenny Cat Laughs comedy festival....
, Hans Teeuwen
Hans Teeuwen
Hans Eduard Marie Teeuwen is a Dutch comedian, actor and an occasional singer and director. His work can be described as absurdist, apolitical and confrontational.- Theatre :...
, John Bishop
John Bishop (comedian)
John Joseph Bishop is an award-winning comedian.His television debut came on The Panel. As an actor, he has appeared in the E4 teen drama Skins as Mr Fitch, father of twins, Katie and Emily and in the Ken Loach film Route Irish...
, Deirdre O'Kane
Deirdre O'Kane
Deirdre O'Kane originally from Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland, became a stand-up comic in 1996 and got into the finals of the BBC New Comedy Awards of that year. She has played at the Edinburgh Festival every year since including 2001 where she not only performed her own solo show, Deirdre O'Kane...
, Michael McIntyre
Michael McIntyre
Michael Hazen James McIntyre is an English stand-up comedian. He is well known for appearing at many British stand-up comedy events and for several roles on television stand-up programmes such as Live at the Apollo and his own show, Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow...
, Alan Davies
Alan Davies
Alan Davies is an English comedian, writer and actor best known for starring in the TV mystery series Jonathan Creek and as the permanent panellist on the TV panel show QI.- Early life :...
, Karl Spain
Karl Spain
Karl Spain is an Irish comedian from Limerick. He is from the Corbally area of the city and was educated at CBS Sexton Street.In 2000, Spain won the RTÉ award for Best New Act....
, Stewart Lee
Stewart Lee
Stewart Lee is an English stand-up comedian, writer and director known for being one half of the 1990s comedy duo Lee and Herring, and for co-writing and directing the critically acclaimed and controversial stage show Jerry Springer - The Opera...
, Jo Brand
Jo Brand
Josephine Grace "Jo" Brand is a BAFTA winning British comedian, writer, and actor.- Early life :Jo Brand was born 23 July 1957 in Wandsworth, London. Her mother was a social worker. Brand is the middle of three children, with two brothers...
, Neil Delamere, and Andrew Maxwell
Andrew Maxwell
Andrew Maxwell is an Irish stand-up comedian. Raised in Kilbarrack, Dublin, and now resident in London, he is a father of two. He regularly appears on The Panel.-Early life:...
.
There is also a traditional soccer match held on the Sunday afternoon between the Irish comedians and those from the Rest of the World. There is no charge to go and watch the game and Karl Spain
Karl Spain
Karl Spain is an Irish comedian from Limerick. He is from the Corbally area of the city and was educated at CBS Sexton Street.In 2000, Spain won the RTÉ award for Best New Act....
usually provides humorous commentary over the loudspeaker system.