I grace the Marquee wit my presence last night with a trip to my favourite comedian, Des Bishop. I have seen two of his shows in he Opera House before and they were really good, and my third and most recent show was on last night. For those of you who have not been to the Marquee; it's HUGE compared to any other Venue in Cork that I can think of. 5,000 capacity, which is generally easily filled by Corkonians and supporters of the artist alike. I'd reckon you'd get three Opera House's worth of space into the tent erected on Leeside. And for those of you who have been to Alton Towers, the carpark and venue itself is a bit smaller than the size of the car park alone in Alton Towers. That's the size we are talking about!
With such a big venue for concerts it is definitely a plus for the Cork economy. A concert in the Marquee is an experience in itself, like Bob Dylan a few years ago. With regards to musical acts at The Marquee it is pretty much perfect, from what I know. Music reaches out to the people in the venue. There is no problem being 200 metres away from the performer, musicians and constant music, beats and singing. I found it was a completely different kettle of when it came to a comedy gig. The reason being is that to get the full effect of a comedy set it is far better when we, the audience, are connected with the comedian on stage, a bit of intamacy does no harm.
I'm not putting the support acts for Deasúin Mac an Easpaig, or an fear himself, down. I saw the same show in the Opera House a few months ago and the reactions of the crowd in the Opera House were far better than that of the crowds of the Marquee. Why? I reckon it was the distance we were from the comedian and pure huge size of the venue. At one stage a punchline was delivered, an applause started to rumble in the distance. I was going to clap, but I thought 'I think the crowd is still deciding whether or not they are clapping'. In the end I did clap and being a comedian, Bishop picked up on the delay. "I'm on a live link to Afghanistan, the delay is finally kicking in" or something to that affect. Made us laugh, but I saw how he felt about it.
It was hard enough for us to make the connection with the comedian, but it was damn near impossible when people were walking in 45 minutes late. They were talking to the stewards asking for directions and getting the poeple in the rows to stand up so they could get into their assigned seats. Now, who the hell decided it was a good idea to be late to an event. And secondly why were they let in? Distrupting a gig is the height of bad manners when everyone is sitting down. I know that people don't turn up to parties on time, and can wander into a club at any given moment, but punctuality is a must. It is curteous to not only the people they are disturbing, but also to the comedian on stage who has to deal with the late comers stupidity and to keep focus. It doesn't really happen in the CAT club, Opera House or Everyman Palace, that I have experienced. If someone is late, they either don't get in or are left in but told to stay at the back as not to disturb other veiwers who have the decency to be on time. Being on time also shows that you have the curteousy and respect to be on time for respective comedian.
Despite these things being bad, I thoroughly enjoyed the show. I loved the Irish section, from my love of irish and got jokes before people who don't speak Irish. I enjoyed the other sections which you'll have to go and see for yourself (or get the DVD when it's out). I did honestly enjoy the content of the gig and would go again. But those things written about really got on my nerves.
Well done to Lenny from RedFM on popping his stand-up comedy cherry. He pulled it off like a pro...
