Last week saw the return of the Funny Women Awards to Ireland. We were guests of Simon O’Keeffe and the Capital Comedy Club at the Halfpenny Inn in Dublin. With Simon’s help we were able to run an audition heat for a brilliant line up of new talent from across Ireland.
A freshly mown Simon hosted a very busy venue, minus the promised beard and hair, filled with a party of 40 Dutch people who really appreciated British humour. One woman even left Simon her contact details on her judging form!
We’ve really missed this location over the last five years and it was wonderful that we were able to celebrate our 10th Anniversary year by returning to Dublin, thanks to our new sponsor for the main award, Benefit Cosmetics. Our last trip in 2007 bore fruit as Sharon Mannion made it into the final and runner up to winner Andi Osho. Sharon headlined the show for us last week and demonstrated why she did so well! We plan to see a lot more of her this year and look out for her in our Edinburgh Fringe line-up.
We’re pretty confident that we’ll be seeing several of the acts from the Dublin heat in the semi finals – the standard was high and proves the theory that the Irish have a gift for comedy!
From wonderful hospitality and spring sunshine in Dublin, to hailstones and a missing host in Manchester! Again, we were there as guests of a promoter, this time at the invitation of Zena and Michelle, founders of the Camden Fringe in London, who have taken over the Kings Arms in Salford, a brilliant venue for new comedy and theatre.
The comedy gods were not so kind to us with a dodgy mic and a host who failed to turn up. Yet, we had a great night and particular praise must go to Katie Tracey who came to compete for the third year running and instead made her debut as a host! She was a natural and coped brilliantly with the challenge – this is what Funny Women is all about.
Katie has also written a play, Ladies Day, which was produced by Pauline Daniels and received great reviews, read HERE and HERE from the Liverpool media.
Thanks to all the entrants for putting up with the technical issues and supporting our debut at this great venue. Again we were impressed with the standard and look forward to revisiting Manchester for the semi-final at the Lowry on 11th July.
Our next heat takes place this coming Saturday 28th April at the Caroline of Brunswick in BRIGHTON.
Please REGISTER HERE NOW if you want to take part.
Pictured top to bottom: Simon O'Keeffe with hair! and Sharon Mannion.
