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The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival is a comedy festival held over the first weekend in June each year in Kilkenny, County Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1994.^[1] It has been referred to as the "Best Little Comedy Festival in the world" by The Guardian and RTE.^[2]^[3]

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.^[1] For the first two editions, no Irish comedian closed the festival due to the audience preferring British comics.^[1] The first edition was sponsored by Smithwick's before being sponsored by Murphy's Irish Stout until 2015 when Smithwick's returned.^[4] It is traditionally held over the June Holiday long weekend.^[5] Each comedian is previewed at other shows by the festival directors before being invited to perform at Cat Laughs.^[1]

Many comedians from the UK and Ireland have attended including; Dara Ó Briain, Ed Byrne and Eddie Izzard.^[6]^[7] Some notable names in stand-up, like David O'Doherty, have gone from audience member to headliner over the festival's history.^[6] The festival has also been used as a way to launch the careers of comedians from outside the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.^[8]

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.^[9] ^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "My big week". Irish Times. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
^ Cook, William (24 May 2003). "The guide: PREVIEW comedy: * cat laughs comedy festival KILKENNY". The Guardian. Proquest. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
^ "Cat Laughs celebrates 25 years with all-star comedy line up". RTE. 20 March 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
^ "Stellar line-up plays for Laughs". Irish Times. 7 May 2005. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
^ "Comedy Festivals in Ireland". DiscoveringIreland.com. 28 April 2010. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Comedy festival cats out of the bag". Irish Independent. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
^ "Kilkenny Cat Laughs 2019 announced". Buzz. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
^ "I was a psycho always blaming other people- comedian Bill Burr". Irish Independent. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
^ "Smithwick's Cat Laughs Comedy Festival". Irish Independent. Retrieved 10 March 2020.

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