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]
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]
