Two Irish comedians - Dubliner, Ed Byrne, and Navan man, Tommy Tiernan - are among the five nominees for the prestigious Perrier prize for comedy at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
There were 180 comedians from around the world eligible for the biggest award in the comedy business. The nominations alone for Byrne and Tiernan guarantees massive exposure in Britain and a run in a London theatre in September.
They join two English acts, Peter Kayo and Al Murray and a Canadian, Sean Cullen, on the shortlist. The overall winner will be announced at midnight on Saturday. Ed Byrne (25) from Swords, Co Dublin, has been playing to packed houses for the last three weeks of the festival with a show called "A Night at the Opera" which is a comic deconstruction of Mozart's opera, Cosi Fan Tutte. Getting glowing reviews in the local Scottish and English national broadsheet press, Byrne is the bookies' favourite to win the overall award.
Tommy Tiernan (29) has been enjoying similar success with his "undivine comedy" show which is a theatrical re-enactment of his controversial appearance on the `'Late Late Show" last year where his routine was described by Irish religious groups as "blasphemous". Tiernan has already enjoyed considerable success on the fringe. The Perrier prize which is worth £5,000 to the winner and virtually guarantees them their own British television series has been won three times by Irish acts in the past - Ben Keaton in 1985, Sean Hughes in 1990 and Tiernan's Navan neighbour, Dylan Moran, in 1996. There was disappointment for Ballinteer, Co Dublin comic, Jason Byrne (no relation to Ed), who failed to make this year's shortlist but he is tipped to win a Perrier newcomer award this year.
Other Irish successes include a Fringe First award for the Irish Theatre company, the Read Company for their play Romantic Friction. This show goes on an Irish tour beginning on September 2nd. Meanwhile, the all-female Irish comedy trio, The Nualas, who are also on the Fringe this year, have been commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to do a second series of programmes.
