The pandemic has been no laughing matter for comedians, with all live performances cancelled since March of last year.
Prior to Covid, the arts, theatre and comedy sector alone contributed over €300 million a year to the Irish economy.
Justin Green is an entertainment industry expert who has produced reports on the revenue generated by live performances.
"We know the annual commercial value of the live entertainment industry to the Irish economy in 2019 was over €1.8 billion," he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
"The sector employed over 25,000 people and attracted 4.8 million people to various events.
"We also know that live performances delivered over 3.5 million bed nights to the tourism sector. For every €1 spent on a ticket, €6 of additional revenue went back into the local economy."
He acknowledged that while grants announced by Minister for the Arts Catherine Martin were appreciated, "what the sector really needs is a Government road map for reopening".
Two comedians who miss performing live onstage but have found a huge new fanbase online are the Dirt Birds, aka Sue Collins and Sinead Culbert.
Their Facebook fanbase tripled during the pandemic to almost 100,000 followers. One of their most popular videos during lockdown focused on the all-important question "that puts women on the edge - what do we have for the Jaysus dinner?"
"In between writing gags, we’d be chatting to each other while cooking the dinner," recalled Ms Culbert.
"Our sketches are all about relatable topics, especially all the stuff that women are challenged with on a daily basis - although of course some men cook the dinner too!"
The Dirt Birds, both of whom live in Dublin, said they "cannot wait" to get back on stage and tickets are now on sale for two gigs in the Olympia, Dublin next June.
"It’s like missing a limb," said Ms Collins of not being able to perform live during the pandemic. "Tickets are selling really well - it’s a real litmus test of how desperate people are to get back to a live show."
However, taking to the stage in front of an audience is not a priority for all comedians whose online audiences have soared during the pandemic.
Corkman Tadhg Hickey is among the jokers whose sketches went viral during lockdown.
"Initially the pandemic destroyed my career," he said. "I was going to go on tour and suddenly overnight, everything got cancelled."
Then Mr Hickey "recalibrated" his career and decided to post satirical videos with a political slant: "The kind of comedy I have always wanted to."
Among his most successful videos were a skit about a loyalist houseshare in Cork and a parody of how working class people are portrayed on screen.
"The loyalism video had 300,000 or 400,000 views and was on the BBC by the end of the day I first posted it," he recalled.
"It also led to my first death threat from a fella who threatened to burn my house down, but little did he know that I actually live in an apartment!"
Mr Hickey told Morning Ireland: "Full disclosure - I am from a working class background myself and I wonder have film makers ever even accidentally wandered into an actual working class estate?
"Like I don’t remember lads with an insatiable desire to go out fighting morning noon and night and having an obsession with drugs. Also chips - everyone is eating chips all of the time."
Working Class Characters by Middle Class Filmmakers
— Tadhg (@TadhgHickey) May 24, 2021
w/ @dominic_machale pic.twitter.com/KBT7SOEYnS
Mr Hickey said he was "not mad to get back" to stand-up comedy.
"I just want to make strong work – I don’t really care if that takes place in my garden, my bedroom or in a live theatre – it does not bother me that much, I don’t need to see the whites of the eyes or hear the laughter."
Two comedians who have been "discovered" by huge audiences amidst lockdown are Killian Sundermann and Michael Fry.
Neither have done any live comedy as yet but their videos have garnered hundreds of thousands of views.
A parody of RTÉ News was one of Mr Sundermann's earliest successes - the bulletin is non-stop doom and gloom with a newsreader advising people "not to be optimistic about anything".
RTE News do this every morning pic.twitter.com/LV4Y1jOc4q
— Killian Sundermann (@killersundymann) July 29, 2020
"I think it touched a nerve with everyone [during lockdown] because we were all just listening to the news and it was getting progressively worse and worse and everything was getting cancelled," he said.
"People were seeing that it was good to maybe see the funny side – it might make it easier to cope with."
Dublin-based Mr Sundermann said he was looking forward to embarking on some live gigs for the first time when restrictions ease.
This is a sentiment shared by one of Ireland's most successful online stars, Michael Fry, whose social media handle is @bigdirtyfry.
He is most famous for his indie band videos, taking his lyrics from quotes that have gone viral, whether from Love Island, Come Dine With Me or Handforth Parish Council.
"I am incredibly nervous about doing live comedy," he said. "That is going to be a new learning curve for me. I do have some gigs planned for later in the year and I am really excited for them."
Mr Fry, who lives in Meath, said he had quadrupled his following during the pandemic and was now making a full-time living out of comedy.
"Some of my videos have over a million views - it's hard to get your head around!
"I have an agent now, I don't think that would have happened without the audience spikes I had last year because of Covid."
