The annual comedy night in aid of Amnesty International took place in the Ulster Hall this year, instead of its usual home at the Whitla Hall.Starring five different comedians, the night was kicked off by Karl Spain who is from Limerick, “Europe’s murder capital”. According to Spain, it is where the gay pride marches feature marchers saying things like, “If anyone sees me here I’ll never be able to say another mass in Ennis again.” Spain told the audience of how he thinks of the IRA and U2 in a similar way in that, “Some of their earlier stuff was good, but their recent stuff is a bit off.” He was a definite audience pleaser.

BY CATHERINE WYLIE

Next up was Kevin Gildea, who used some old material which he had already performed in Mandela Hall last year at a student comedy night. That joke about skinny jeans not really making you skinny is a bit old in 2009, considering skinny jeans were at the height of fashion three years ago. Get with the zeitgeist Gildea.

A female comedian was next on the bill, which made me nervous, as more often than not female comedians can be painful to watch. However, Maeve Higgins’ unique style of performance won over the majority of the audience, perhaps alienating older audience members with her “random” (I hate that word but it was made for Higgins) personality and body language.

And then came the best two acts of the night in the form of Scotland’s Craig Hill and comedy winner David O’Doherty. Hill entered the stage in a kilt to the blast of Madonna’s ‘Hung Up’, and mimed and danced through the entire track, prompting much uproarious laughter from the audience. Much like Cheryl Cole on Sunday night, but without the laughter. Everything he said was hilarious and the quick wit he displayed whilst interacting with audience members was very impressive. David O’Doherty went on to tell great jokes, and finished up with a fabulous song slagging off everything that has made 2009 (and arguably the entire noughties) irritating and ridiculous. Making a comment about news values, he sang at the end, “And the death toll of the earthquake is expected to rise to 6000 by next week…In other news, Christina Aguilera’s cat has a alopecia.” He also expressed his annoyance at absolutely everyone being obsessed with their iphones and what applications they have. However, he said that when he’s bored talking to someone he’ll whip out his ipod and pretend it’s an iphone, “Ah, sorry, I have to take this, it’s Prince calling.” Very funny indeed.

I would argue that the venue change effected the atmosphere of the gig somewhat. I have been at all the Amnesty Stand Ups in the last five years, and I definitely prefer the Whitla as a venue for this event. I also found that there was very little emphasis on the Amnesty aspect of the night this year. In other years, a DVD would have been screened at the beginning and the audience would have been given more information about what Amnesty do.

I say bring it back to the Whitla next year, and bring Craig Hill and David O’Doherty with it.