'Shout out to everyone who wanted to go to Chemical Brothers': Dara Ó Briain at Marquee
Dara Ó Briain at the Marquee in Cork. Picture: Ray Keogh
Dara Ó Briain is no stranger to a Cork stage and it was a welcome return to “the tarmacadam” for the Bray comic at Live at the Marquee on Thursday night. His ‘So… Where Were We’ tour enjoyed a hilarious night beside the Lee and he had the audience howling with laughter.
Thousands of fans made their way down to the showgrounds site and, given the day’s combination of blue skies and high temperatures, I arrived to find a chilled-out crowd chatting in the sunshine.
It was no surprise really, given the more mature age of the average attendee. The devoted partiers can be found instead at Friday night's Jenny Greene set with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, who take to the “tent beside a GAA stadium”, as Ó Briain described it.
“This is the most unique gig of the tour. It’s not every day I play in a fucking tent beside a GAA stadium. Big shout out to everyone who wanted to go to Chemical Brothers but ended up at this instead,” Ó Briain said, referencing the Covid cancellation of their Musgrave Park gig which should have taken place on the same night.
Clearly bemused by his venue, Ó Briain said it was “a pleasure to be back in Cork".
Promos for the tour indicated that Covid would not feature in the show because "who wants to hear about that?" However, fans hoping for a reprieve from Covid conversations might be disappointed that he does discuss it in detail, though from the hysterical laughter in the Marquee, it sounds like no one really minded.
Ó Briain is a deeply intelligent comedian and he strikes a perfect balance between education and entertainment. Topics he touched upon included some universal favourites such as parenting, Irish mammies, his knee injury, the important difference between a cane and a walking stick, and some literal toilet humour, as well as some local observations.
He said he enjoyed a stroll around the city ahead of his gig, noting the unique Cork accent’s effect on his own language.
“Certain words exist around the world too, but you’ve fucking ruined them,” he said, citing ‘Mardyke’ and ‘bodega’ as two examples that he can now only say with a Cork lilt.
Of course, no Dara Ó Briain gig is complete without targeting the front row, and a special shout-out goes to Liam, age 11, probably the youngest and most unimpressed member of the audience.
“Was there no age restriction on those tickets at all?” Ó Briain exclaimed.
Ó Briain closed the show with the heart-wrenching tale of his search in recent years for his birth mother, having been adopted from a home in the early 1970s. His story, all-too-familiar for many families, included retracted letters and gruelling searches through libraries and was infused with a warm wit that did not detract from his experience. There were gasps at some revelations but moment he described meeting his birth mother was met with genuine applause from an audience relieved to hear a happy ending.
Jenny Greene and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra take to the Marquee on Friday night to kick off a party weekend in Cork.
