Sínann Fetherston chats with comedian Fred Cooke about the upcoming Paddy Power Comedy Festival.
Get ready, comedy fans. This July, over 90 artists will descend upon Dublin's Iveagh Gardens to perform 36 shows across four fully seated venues.
Running from July 27 –30, the Paddy Power comedy festival will return to the city centre with a whole host of home-grown talent including comedy heavy-weights Tommy Tiernan, Dara O’Briain, Deirdre O’Kane, Jason Byrne, Gearoid Farrelly, Jarlath Regan, Enya Martin, Fred Cooke, Kevin McGahern, and Neil Delamare.
"I honestly think - and I know as a married man with a beautiful son, I shouldn't say this - but it's my favourite time of the year," laughs Fred Cooke. "Being on stage is great and the line-up this year is amazing; you have Daire O'Brien and Tommy Tiernan (my best friend) and loads of American acts too."
"I would be raging if I wasn't doing it. It's so cosy, you've got all these comedians around you that you know and you've got the crowds. It really is the last comedy blast of the summer."
The exceptional line-up of American stars including house band star of James Cordon's Late Show, Reggie Watts, and star of HBO’s 2 Dope Queen’s Phoebe Robinson, Never Mind the Buzzcock’s Desiree Burch, plus rising newcomers Ariel Elias and Conner O’Malley.
They will be joined by UK acts including one-liner merchant extraordinaire Milton Jones, Scotland's Fern Brady, star of Live At The Apollo’s Helen Bauer as well as acts from across the world including The Last Leg's Adam Hills, Shrinking writer Wally Baram, Nghia Mai, and many more.
"It's great to see such a celebration of so many acts," Fred says of the line-up. "I mean this in such an uncontrived sense, but it's great to see Deirdre O'Kane still flying the flag at her best. It's great to see the like on Enya Martin as well. Some people used to think you had to put female comedians on to keep a balance but it's not that at all; these are big ticket sellers."
As well as the household names, there will be new and exciting acts that comedy fans will recognise from RTÉ's sketch show No Worries If Not! such as Killian Sundermann, Justine Stafford, Emma Doran, Sean Burke, and Michael Fry, plus comedy podcaster Tony Cantwell and Seriously Sinead's Sinead Quinlan.
Reflecting on his own experience of the festival, Cooke says the walls of the Iveagh Gardens create a special experience for upcoming comics:
"It's like you're a celebrity for two days," he smiles. "It's such a cosy setting, it's your festival, you get your laminate and you see yourself on the poster - it means everything."
Tickets for the Paddy Power Comedy Festival, which is a strictly over-18s event, are on sale on Thursday, June 15 at 10am. Full details can be found at PPComedyFestival.com
