tommy guns for limerick | cramming 8 dates over two weeks, tommy tiernan brings his ‘world tour…..’ to, well, everywhere. jody gets there first.

Shakespeare once wrote “All the world’s a stage and all its men and women are merely players”. This coming January, Limerick will be the stage for the peerless Tommy Tiernan as the multi award-winning comic embarks on his ‘World Tour of Limerick 2010′.

Tommy’s ‘World Tour…….’ concept is a new twist on a lately established idea, with a particular nod to Billy Connolly for his ‘World Tours’ of Scotland, New Zealand and England, Ireland & Wales to name just a few. Having already got ‘World Tours’ of Mayo, Donegal and Offaly under his belt, Tommy will warm a cold post-Christmas month when he steps on to 8 stages, some old, some new, across two weekends.

LEG’s first taste of Tiernan came in our student days, a distant 12 years ago, buried deep in the heart of the University of Limerick’s Jonathan Swift Theatre. Capable of putting only 220 people sitting down, The Swift was creaking with almost 400 people, long before Tommy became the man we know today. You could see it though, the glint & fire, the slice of madness. Having sat close to the back of many more shows with many more comedians since then, LEG’s eye is a little more trained now to the tricks of the comedy trade. Casting that gently experienced eye back to that first show, those skills were in evidence too, but the taught/learned techniques were only sitting alongside so much more. The talent was raw and barely controlled, but obvious and compulsive. For all that talk though, we are still missing one adjective….funny. Tiernan, ahead of all his peers who called to that college around those same years, was very, very funny.

And so we welcome him to Limerick as he is now…..fearless, inspiring and armed with a breath of comic abilities rivaled by no one in stand-up today. Tommy is consistently able to expertly write and perform jokes born from every corner of the mind, politics, sex, family relationships, international observations, religion and drugs, it’s all there.

Having recently broken the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous solo show by a comedian (36 hours 15 minutes) and sell out runs at the Montreal ‘Just For Laughs’ Festival and Galway Arts Festival, Tiernan is currently in irrepressible form. This whistle stop 8-date tour is a perfect and timely antidote to the depressive, recessionary mood that’s hanging over all heads in all parts of our part of the world.

Tiernan can, without doubt, claim them crown of the country’s most successful comedian. Boasting the highest selling DVD sales in Ireland. ‘Cracked: Live at Vicar Street’ went straight to number 1 in the 1st week of release and will reached four times platinum status. His ‘Loose’ DVD also went straight to number 1 and reached eight times platinum status. ‘Jokerman: Tommy Tiernan in America’ not only reached quadruple platinum status, but got also nominated for an IFTA award.

Amazingly, he is second only to U2 when it comes to live ticket sales in Ireland. His Bovinity Tour culminated in 3 sold out shows to a total audience of 12,000 in the Marquee Cork. No other artist, Irish or International has ever managed to do this. It’s an astounding amount of tickets to sell for 3 days in one city. With his Loose tour he broke all Irish box office records by selling out in venues across the country including a staggering 166 dates in Dublin’s one thousand seat theatre, Vicar Street.

Not only has Tommy had success at home and the UK, but also in Canada and America. The Gala performance in the Just for Laughs Tour in Montreal in 2005, saw 2000 Canadians on their feet crying out for more. In 2006 he headlined the first ever Irish gala at the Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival and he has joined the Just for Laughs National Tours in 2007 and in 2009. Following in the footsteps of Eddie Izzard & Billy Connolly, Tommy was again invited back to perform a huge solo run at this year’s Festival.

In America, Tommy has been invited to perform three times on the ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ to rave reviews. His DVD ‘Something Mental’ has been aired numerous times now on America’s huge Comedy Network, Comedy Central as part of their popular ‘Secret Stash’ comedy slot and has now been viewed by over 3 million. Comedy Central UK are currently broadcasting ‘Bovinity’ with plans to follow with a number of his live shows this year.

Nearly there, but we can’t really bounce out of here without a note about the controversy. Gentle-ish one first, in November 1997 Tommy appeared for the first time on ‘The Late Late Show’. As a result of some material about “the Lamb of God”, a group of protestors gathered outside the RTE studios after the show and a record number of complaints were made. As a result Tommy was accused of blasphemy in the Irish Senate. He landed in it again just months ago, and in it deeper than ever, when his comments on the Holocaust significantly raised temperatures not just in this country, but in most of Tommy’s international stomping grounds. Not to matter that they were taken wholly out of context, the joeduffyites had a field day, stirred on by plentiful hapless politicos. As a result of this and numerous other Late Late appearances, record amounts of complaints, and bans from appearing, Tommy has been christened ‘the most controversial comedian in Ireland’. But just an easy predictable thought from the LEG head…… in the past twelve months, when all major organizations, from the banks, to FIFA, the Catholic Church in an extraordinary way, and the Government on an essentially daily basis, have proven themselves to be simply that, major organizations obsessed with power, money and a disregard for the Joe on the street, it’s difficult to take hear a poetic, old/new-Irish accused of controversy by some of these same organisations & their followers.

Anyway, happier things….! In the next 12 months Tommy will have toured a number of times in the US, Canada, UK and Ireland and will return to Australia and New Zealand with a solo show next April. Before then though, his ‘World Tour of Limerick’ visits the city’s Dolan’s Warehouse, The Strand Hotel, Southill Area Centre, the gorgeous Daghdha Space in St. John’s Church and a cheeky date in Thomond Park, while landing in Adare, Kilmallock and Templeglantine to complete the run in the county.

Let’s hope he starts with a line about ‘the’ Christmas Tree.

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Aiken Promotions present

TOMMY TIERNAN

“World Tour Of Limerick – Jan 2010”

Thurs 14^th Jan - Woodlands Hotel, Adare

Fri 15^th Jan - Strand Hotel, Ennis Road

Sat 16^th Jan - Devon Inn Hotel, Templeglentine

Sun 17^th Jan - Bulgaden Castle, Kilmallock

Thurs 21^st Jan - Thomond Park

Fri 22^nd Jan - St John’s Church

Sat 23^rd Jan - Southill Area Centre*

Sun 24^th Jan - Dolans Warehouse

Tickets on sale Monday 7^th Dec @ 9am!

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Tickets €25 (*€10), Available from the venues

More info on www.tommytiernan.com