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Read all about it below. Oh, and get yourself along to the monthly Hardy Har Comedy Club too. It’ll do your heart good. And your funny bone too.
Putting together six shows with over 25 acts – lots of fun and laughter or a long day’s journey into night…?
You somehow manage to find four unwitting comedians to venture out to The Harbour Bar every month – did it take a lot to lure a busload that includes the likes of Simon O’Keeffe, Paul Woodfull, Andrew Stanley and Father Dougal himself, Ardal O’Hanlon to the festival? Do you have Polaroids of these people?
Stand-up is plainly a labour of love – most comedians are happy to drive 50 miles to do 10 minutes in a 4-seater pub in the middle of the week. Everyone involved seems to accept the craziness of such a profession…
Comedy has come a long way over the last two decades, with one man and his microphone now capable of selling out massive arenas (Lee Evans playing to over 10,000 in 2005, Newman & Baddiel over 12,000 in 1993). And yet, an attic room with wacky Pope portraits situated above a throbbing pub still seems like its natural home. I’m sure comedians love playing The Hardy Har Comedy Club…
What drew you to standing on a stage and raging against the cigarette machine? Was stand-up comedy always part of your master plan?
Were there early influences? Did you have Richard Pryor: Live In Concert on repeat? Bill Hicks? Billy Connolly? Louis CK?
Do you feel the need to check out any new kids on the block, either here or on the world stage?
Where do you get your comedy kicks off-stage? Movies? Sitcoms? Your kids?
As we both know, stand-up comedy is perhaps the finest art-form known to man or beast – just a stage and a microphone against an increasingly ridiculous world. Having said that, you have to possess at least a tint of madness to do it, right?
Dylan Moran’s Perrier win in 1996 spearheaded a wave of hugely successful Irish comedians to the UK, just as comedy was being hailed as the new rock’n’roll. Is it now MOR, or do you feel, thanks to the likes of Frankie Boyle, comedy still has the power to kick against the priests?
You’ve been hosting your monthly Hardy-Har Comedy Club in The Harbour Bar now for, what, 63 years. Always a thrill, or does it ever feel like just another day at the office?
So, December 11th, and a particularly special Hardy Har Comedy Night – you decided to get a Father Ted tattoo done live during the Christmas Special, settling on ‘Small.. Far Away’. Any regrets…?
Finally, what’s your favourite one-liner? Currently, mine is, ‘Did you hear about the one-armed butler? He could take it, but he couldn’t dish it out’…
The Big Interview: Adam Burke
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