Cat Laughs
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The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival is a comedy festival held each year in Kilkenny, Ireland. It was first held in 1995 and usually runs over the first weekend in June.
Many famous faces have appeared at it over the years including Bill Murray, Lewis Black, Rich Hall, Dom Irrera, Mike Wilmot, Dan Castellaneta, Doug Stanhope and David Cross.
Many British and Irish comedians appear regularly including Tommy Tiernan, Dara Ó Briain, Bill Bailey, Omid Djalili, Barry Murphy, Jimmy Carr, Ed Byrne, Des Bishop, Ardal O'Hanlon, Jason Byrne, Deirdre O'Kane, Karl Spain, Neil Delamere and Andrew Maxwell.
The primary sponsor of the 2009 festival was Carlsberg, with Murphy's and Smithwick's beers sponsoring previous festivals. The festival features mainly stand-up comedy performances and in 2008 also featured the world premiere of Flicker, a physical comedy show performed by The Umbilical Brothers and pianist Niall Brand
There is also a traditional soccer match held on the Sunday afternoon between the Irish comedians and those from the rest of the world. Karl Spain provided commentary while a loudspeaker system provided additional generic crowd sounds in 2008.
