Stand-up Seann Walsh on fond Belfast memory and why NI comedy scene booming
He is performing as part of the Cats Laugh Comedy Festival coming to Belfast
Comedian Seann Walsh has shared his excitement about returning to Northern Ireland to perform as part of the upcoming Cat Laughs Comedy Festival.
Ireland's longest-running comedy event is bringing together a huge line-up of stand-up talent to Belfast and Derry for the first time next month.
To celebrate 30 years of the iconic Kilkenny festival, over 30 of the biggest comedians across the UK and Ireland - including Seann and big local talents such as Shane Todd and Colin Geddis - will perform 20 shows across the two cities.
Read more: Over 30 of 'the world's leading comedians' to come together for NI shows
Speaking to Belfast Live, English stand-up and actor Seann Walsh shared his enthusiasm for coming back to be apart of the festival once again and why the format lends itself to Northern Ireland's buzzing comedy scene.
Seann said: "The festival is one of the longest-running comedy festivals going - with something like the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, you're going and doing a solo show where you do an hour or over an hour and there are judges and critics coming in.
"There are a lot of external pressures that take the fun out of it a bit. At Cat Laughs, there's no winner at the end of the run and it's just comedians who often haven't seen each other in months or years getting to be on the same bill and having just as good a time in the green room as they are on stage.
"I can totally see why they have decided to come to Belfast and Derry because since lockdown and since the move that comedy has taken from television to the smartphone and social media, Northern Ireland in particular has had a giant boom.
"You've got the likes of Shane Todd filling arenas because of the stuff that they've posted themselves on YouTube and Instagram and TikTok, so it's the perfect time really for these two forces to come together."
Seann ended his 2024 comedy tour in Belfast, a memory he holds fondly ahead of his Cat Laugh gigs in Belfast.
He continued: "I had the fortune of ending the tour in Belfast and it was genuinely one of the best shows I had.
"It was a wonderful audience and I think the Belfast crowds just have that instinct for knowing when to join in.
"There's a kind of thin line between joining in and interrupting a show and whenever I played Belfast, they seemed to have nailed that thin line of getting it just right and making the show better."
He also had strong praise for not only the comics that perform on the Northern Irish scene but the local comics, such as Vittorio Angelone, who are making a name for themselves in the London comedy industry.
Seann added: "It's an incredible time for comedy, but in particular, it is an incredible time for comedy in Northern Ireland."
Cats Laugh Comedy Festival Founder Richard Cook also spoke to Belfast Live about touring the festival for the first time and why he believes it still is attracting the biggest names in comedy three decades since it was founded.
Richard said: "It's a celebration of stand-up - we don't have any awards, we don't have any cameras, no reviewers.
"It is for people to come and see these wonderful comedians in an environment where we think they'll give it their best and they'll share a stage.
"I think the reason why it's lasted and I think the reason why it's beloved by the comedians. It's an opportunity for these headliners to share bills and then also for new comedians to show up perform as well where audiences can get to know them too.
"It's really wonderful for audiences."
On why he wanted to bring the festival north of the border, Richard said that Belfast and Derry were "very obvious playgrounds" for the festival due to the "explosion" of comedy in NI over the last five years.
"It was a natural place for us to go. The great thing about Belfast is that there are venues of all sizes," he explained.
"'We're in the Waterfront, for instance, but we're also in the Black Box, the MAC, we're in Lavery's, we're in the Lyric and we are in Limelight 1 and 2 so the variety of spaces allows you to put on a variety of shows.
"I think it's a really good, interesting and fun way, most importantly, to enjoy comedy."
To find out more about Cat Laughs Comedy Festival coming to Belfast and Derry and get tickets, see here
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