Five things to see at Castlepalooza if you want to run into Conor O’Toole constantly

1. Paddy Hanna

Sunday | 8pm | Centre Stage

Definitely going to go see ol’ Padge, formerly of Grand Pocket Orchestra, the Prime Minister of Underappreciated Pop Music, because there’s a chance he might get real successful soon and I wanna make sure I earn that ‘old fan’ cred before it’s too late. I saw a bunch of middle aged men at his last show and that means one thing: imminent success. Also my friend Neil plays in his band so I’ll have no one to hang out with while he’s on anyway*.

2. No Monster Club

Sunday | 2pm | Centre Stage

I’m going to be very excited about this show. NMC are the most fun of all the bands playing at Castlepalooza, maybe even in all of Offaly. There’s a higher chance of me accidentally missing them though, as they’re on at two. Better set an alarm.

3. Pretty much everything in the comedy tent on Sunday

Sunday | From 2pm | Vodafone Laughter Lab

Jesus, how did I end up on Saturday? Must’ve been to compensate for all the absolute smashers on Sunday. Davey Reilly, Alison Spittle, Gearoid Farrelly, Eleanor Tiernan, and Chris Kent are all preparing shows for Edinburgh at the moment so they’re presumably all killing it [technical term] in the run up. It’s most likely I’ll be at Chris Kent ’cause he lives outside the EU and so is a rarer site around Dublin. Also look! He was on some fancy Comedy Central show:

4. Morning Veils

Sunday | 5pm | Original Penguin Stage

They’re from Cork and they sound class. I honestly don’t know much about them other than that.

5. Lisa O’Neill

Friday | 7pm | Original Penguin Stage

Ah yeah. Sure how could you not. Looking forward to hearing her new songs too. She’s too successful for Bandcamp now so until I remember my iTunes password [unlikely [plus, fuck iTunes]] I’ll just have to go hear them in person. I’m sure they’re better that way anyway. And I think she’s playing twice and all! So very good odds of seeing me at this one. Too late to re-order the list though. My editor is banging on the door.

0. My own stand up show

Saturday | 2.15pm | Vodafone Laughter Lab

Certainly the 100% most likely place to catch a glimpse of me in the flesh is at the show I’m contractually obliged** to be at; my set in the Laughter Lab! I’ll be doing some sweet vibe-comedy to ease your afternoon open. Also, either side of me are Ed Sammon and Andrea Farrell, who are both Very Good at Stand Up Comedy. So yeah. Come along!

*Except my girlfriend
**There was no actual contract but in the comedy biz’ we operate on a little system called Common Decency. Try it some time !!!