Before I start all in all the show was absolutely outstanding. The atmosphere of the crowd and the venue were just perfect for the show to be a hit.
Hector as the MC worked out really well. He is a rather funny man and is able to handle a crowd so landing him as the MC was a great choice.
The first half of the show went down really well. The highlight was obviously David O'Doherty having his set derailed for a good 5 minutes after berating a man in the front row (me) for not having a bike and on quizzing him "Why?" was returned with an answer of "I'm Blind." The crowd were in an up-roar of laughter and O'Doherty literally fell off his chair.
The other Acts in the first half were incredible in their own right the opening comic (and I appologize for not knowing his name it was the first time I seen him and have not seen him since) tearing down the house which unfortunately despite her being funny may have hurt Taylor's set as it is a much slower pace of comedy. Her act was very good but as said. May have been hurt by the opening comics fast paced style.
Dermot of the 98fm Morning Crew had a good set folowing Taylor mixing the classic Stand-up style with the singing comedian style quite well and lead nicely into Eric Lalor, who's observational comedy mixed with the looking back over ones life make an amazing show to look at. DoD closed out the first half with his'Beef's 2010' which sound a lot similar to his 'Beef's 2009' but still packs the same comedic whallop that you expect from the V.L.E.M.Wy comic.
The second half of the show was jam packed with tallent although Higgens was just not up to par for the show. Despite pulling out her standard material the crowd were clearly not on her side and sat pretty much stone faced for the entire set. Late into the set Higgens began passing the lack of reaction off to being the 'Fall comic' for the evening which drew out some chuckles but overall a lack of new material for the show definitely hurt the set.
Jarlath Regan mannaged to pullof a heavy hitting set with a mix of his standard material and a nice injection of topical humor based primarily on pointing out the recent change of 98fm's name from Dublin's 98 back to the former title. Citing that people were finally getting used to the new title and much prefered it as it was a more definite and recognisable title for the station. Jarlath's set ended on a high note which lead semelessly into the final act of the night
Dara O'Briain closed out the show with what he described as "The best parts of an hour and a half show squeezed into 20 minutes". The set was astonishingly funny and definitely well assembled to suit the time. From the nerd love with 'Pwning' and the diluting of the homeopathy rutien to the lovable image of Dr. Bear and the interaction with the crowd, it was both an amazing advertisment for his full lenght show and an outstanding way to close out the show.
It was easily the highlight of the summer for me and was a great show to raise money for Temple Street Hospital. I will most assuredly be going to the gig again next year and expecting an equal or better show.