Vodafone Comedy Festival unveils its most exciting and diverse line-up yet!

Vodafone Ireland and Aiken Productions today announced the line-up of the Vodafone Comedy Festival 2017 and this year’s festival is set to be the biggest one yet with over one hundred acclaimed acts from Ireland and around the world set to grace the stage in Dublin’s stunning Iveagh Gardens this July. The festival takes place in 5 fully seated indoor venues over 4 days from July 27th – 30th and tickets are on sale this Friday 16th June @ 9am.

As always, the line-up is a mixture of big-name heavy hitters like Dara O’Briain and Tommy Tiernan, acclaimed stand-ups from around the world such as Adam Hills, Aparna Nancharla and Tim Key and the new wave of rising stars and future headliners such as Alison Spittle, Chris Redd and James Veitch.

The Vodafone Comedy Festival has had a strong connection with the US comedy scene bringing over essential names such as Louis C.K., Reggie Watts, Maria Bamford and Bill Burr over our first 10 years. This year the festival focuses heavily on this US connection & welcomes its largest contingent of American comedians yet with 24 amazing acts flying in for the weekend.

One of the biggest hits of last year, Rory Scovel, returns to the Iveagh Gardens with his biggest special yet just about to premiere on Netflix, Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up Comedy For the First Time. T.J Miller makes his Dublin debut, not only with his solo stand-up set but also bringing his acclaimed sketch troupe Heavyweight. Renowned for his hilarious role as Erlich Bachman in HBO’s Silicon Valley, Miller has had a stream of recent movie roles including Office Party, Deadpool, and forthcoming roles in Emoji Movie, Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and Kristen Stewart’s Underwater. Kyle Kinane is a VCF favourite and can currently be seen in Judd Apatow’s Netflix special Love while, Nate Bargatze, Aparna Nancharla and Jay Larson all return this year having all been brilliant surprise packages of the last three years.

This year will also see debuts from some of America’s most acclaimed acts. Colin Quinn is a New York comedy legend, a veteran of the famous Comedy Cellar club alongside Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock, a Saturday Night Live stalwart, a Broadway star, film actor and in more recent years a star of HBO’s ground-breaking show, Girls. Stand-up, writer, director, children’s book author and poker player extraordinaire Michael Ian Black is another comedian we are excited to see making his Irish debut. And if that wasn’t enough for American comedy fans, do not miss debuts from Spanish-American actress and comedian Carmen Lynch, star of mockumentary Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping Chris Redd, The Dork Forest podcaster and stand-up Jackie Kashian, Saturday Night Live writer Anna Drezen, Emily Heller (Conan, Maron & Inside Amy Schumer), Chris DiStefano, Sam Morril, Liz Miele and Ryan O’Flanagan. Rachel Feinstein & Mark Normand return to these shores having blown audiences away supporting Louis C.K. & Amy Schumer on their arena shows here last year and the mighty Tom Rhodes, a regular visitor to Ireland, makes his festival debut.

From elsewhere around the world, the festival will see visits from acclaimed Australian stand-up and The Last Leg presenter Adam Hills, South-African star Loyiso Gola, the eagerly-awaited return of the brilliant Stephen K. Amos and the genius that is poet, stand-up and one-time Alan Partridge side-kick, Tim Key.

Pleased as we are about the international line up, it’s the Irish comedy line-up that we are always immensely proud of. On one hand, we have the household names, Tommy Tiernan, Dara O’Briain, Al Porter, David O’Doherty, Katherine Lynch, PJ Gallagher, Maeve Higgins, Jason Byrne, Neil Delamare, Deirdre O’Kane, Barry Murphy and Foil, Arms & Hog amongst others. On the other, we have a plethora of rising stars, Alison Spittle, Aoife Dooley, Joanne McNally, Catherine Bohart, Davey Reilly, Martin Angolo, Enya Martin, Danny O’Brien, Sahar Ali, Julie Jay, Hannah Mamalis and Shane Clifford, to name just a drop in the ocean.

The festival continues its spirit of collaboration this summer by teaming up with Headstuff to present five Podcasts including The Alison Spittle Chatshow, The Reviewables, Jarlath Regan’s An Irishman Abroad and two live podcasts with Deborah Francis-White’s acclaimed The Guilty Feminist. VCF will also host six of the best local Comedy Clubs in recognition of their crucial role as the life-blood of comedy in Ireland including The International Comedy Club who have been part of the festival since day one and Dublin Comedy Improv who celebrate their 25th anniversary this year.

The wonderfully bizarre Horsebox Theatre will be there again this year in all its Victorian splendor and the legendary Turning Pirate folks will be entertaining us all weekend with their kaleidoscopic troupe of musicians and street entertainers. The Laughter Lab will once again be a hub of some of the many highlights of the festival and it will host ten amazing, fun-packed and unique free shows across the 4-day comedy extravaganza - we will have tickets to give away for these shows so stay tuned.

Festival Director, Bren Berry, Aiken Promotions said: “We are thrilled to be unveiling such an exciting and diverse line-up for the festival’s eleventh year. I have never been so excited to welcome such a host of brilliant comedians from all around the globe. The festival’s tradition of supporting local talent continues for 2017 and this year’s crop of rising Irish comedians ae amazingly talented & we really look forward to seeing many of them having fantastic careers in Comedy.”

Gerry Nixon, Sponsorship Manager, Vodafone Ireland said: “It’s fantastic to once again be involved with the Comedy Festival as part of the Vodafone Centre Stage comedy and entertainment programme. The festival is the perfect example of what Centre Stage is all about, keeping people connected to the things that matter most - friends, fun and laughter.”

Tickets for the festival are on sale this Friday 16th June @ 9am with 20,000 people expected to attend over the duration of the festival. Tickets are sold on a show-by-show basis and the festival is a strictly over 18s event.

For full details of the Vodafone Comedy Festival Line-up and programme information visit vodafonecomedy.com

Further Information:

Sorcha O’Flanagan                                                        086 0217556

Clodagh O’Hagan, Vodafone Ireland                          087 9084055

Serena Joyce/Gary Grimes, notorious                        087 6606961/087 2148888

FULL LINE UP

Notes to Editor

About Vodafone Ireland:

Vodafone is one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies and provides a range of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone has mobile operations in 26 countries, partners with mobile networks in 49 more, and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of 31 December 2016, Vodafone had 470 million mobile customers and 14.3 million fixed broadband customers. For more information, please visit:  www.vodafone.com.