The ''Cat Laughs Comedy Festival'' is a

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...

held over the first weekend in June each year in Kilkenny, County Kilkenny,

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

. It was founded in 1994.

History

Cat Laughs was envisioned in 1994 by Lynn Cahill who ran Bickerstaffe theatre company in Kilkenny. As a means to expand the companies programme, she considered with her business partner that Kilkenny was great for a festival. After originally planning a choral festival called "Cat Sings", her business partner Richard Cook suggested a comedy festival instead. For the first two editions, no Irish comedian closed the festival due to the audience preferring British comics. The first edition was sponsored by

Smithwick's Smithwick's () is an Irish red ale-style beer. Smithwick's brewery was founded in Kilkenny in 1710 by John Smithwick and run by the Smithwick family of Kilkenny until 1965 when it was acquired by Guinness, now part of Diageo. The Kilkenny b ...

before being sponsored by

Murphy's Irish Stout Murphy's Irish Stout (often simply Murphy's) is a stout brewed at the Murphy's Brewery in Cork, Ireland. It is owned and distributed by the Dutch brewer Heineken International. Flavour profile It is brewed to be less heavy and less bitter tha ...

until 2015 when Smithwick's returned. It is traditionally held over the weekend of Pentecost. Each comedian is previewed at other shows by the festival directors before being invited to perform at Cat Laughs. Several comedians throughout the British Isles attended including;

Dara Ó Briain Dara Ó Briain ( , ; born 4 February 1972) is an Irish comedian and television presenter based in the United Kingdom. He is noted for performing stand-up comedy shows all over the world and for hosting topical panel shows such as ''Mock the W ...

, Ed Byrne and

Eddie Izzard Edward John Izzard (; born 7 February 1962) is a British stand-up comedian, actor and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomime. Izzard's stand- ...

. The festival became referred to by RTE as the "Best Little Comedy Festival in the world". The festival has also been used as a way to launch the careers of comedians from outside the British Isles in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. A tradition developed over the years that as a part of the festival, the Irish comedians would play a football match against comedians from the rest of the world for the Cat Cup.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official Site

Facebook Page
Comedy festivals in Ireland Culture in County Kilkenny Kilkenny (city)