Chris Kent: 'Playing the Marquee was almost a bucket-list type thing'

Tue, 01 Jul, 2025 - 07:41

WHILE Live At The Marquee has had many varied musical acts play there over the last 20 years, few comedians have taken to the stage.

This year, Cork’s own Chris Kent becomes only the eighth comedian to headline a show there, his first forays at the Marquee being as an audience member.

“I remember going, over the years, to see Kanye West and Westlife,” Chris says. “What a diverse pair of acts! I had a great time both times, and I actually got a great story out of the Westlife gig. But as a comedian down the years, I went to see Tommy Tiernan playing there, and then Joanne McNally, and I thought, ‘I’d love to do this venue some day’.

“So it was always in the back of my mind. I did eight shows at The Everyman last year, so I knew that, numbers-wise, it’s possible. It was almost a bucket-list type of thing: Could I do this? This is as close to an arena gig you’d get in Cork: It’s over 4,000 people.”

While some performers fret about larger stages and venues perhaps not suiting their act, Chris is relishing the chance to perform his biggest-ever show in Cork.

Chris says: “One night, I was there at Tommy Tiernan, and John Colleary was opening for him. He wouldn’t be a million miles from me, energy-wise. I remember looking at him, thinking, ‘OK, he’s really killing it here’ and from what I could see, he didn’t change his style too much. You have a little bit of space up there and I take my time anyway, so it would suit me.

"I did an arena up in Belfast with Neil Delamere, and you just figure out, after a couple of minutes, that while the laughter is happening you are only hearing it after they’ve laughed. It’s a kind of strange thing, at first, but you get used to it… unless you start overthinking it! The sound of the crowd laughing actually takes longer to dissipate, as well, because of the size; so it almost counteracts the fact that it’s late.

"I can only go out and do my show, and do it to my absolute best level. I’m really looking forward to it, I can’t wait to see how it feels on the night, to be honest with you. It’s just a completely different level to everything else.”

The idea for the show Chris will be performing has been percolating for a while. “Initially, it was way back in 2012, when I did my first Edinburgh Comedy Festival. I was totally naive going into it, like it’s your first year in Edinburgh, this is the biggest gig in my life so far, but it’s also, sometimes, just four or five people coming to see your show; a completely different challenge to a big room.

“I got a bad review, just a really shitty review, and I took it quite personally at the time.

"Just because I saw this one nasty thing online, I remember having a silly idea, going, ‘Oh, I hate the internet, I’d love to give it up.’ I wrote a quick pitch, but I never sent it to anybody.

"Fast forward a few years and I was doing my show over there last year; I was driving back from Edinburgh, thinking, ‘What am I going to write about for next year?’ And that idea just kind of popped back into my head, and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be even funnier, in a way, to ditch the internet now?’ I found that it was even more important, because it has really taken away my creativity. I got a massive break online, but it really led to a very unhealthy relationship with my phone.

"I was constantly posting videos, then constantly checking them and constantly doing stuff you don’t need to do, checking the tickets and constantly, just mindlessly scrolling. So, A) I needed something to write about, and B) I needed to be able to write. I gave it up for just over two months, and I’m back on my phone now. I’m not as bad, but I’m trying to figure something out, where I can, maybe, give the social media to someone else. My wife looked after it all for me for two months, and it was the best two months of my life!”

It’s hard not to use the internet. Chris says: “There were times where I found it really difficult being off it, I’d painted myself in to a corner, to an extent, because I gave up absolutely everything. I gave up the internet completely. I didn’t log on to any device for eight and a half weeks. Those times were frustrating, when I was getting lost, doing gigs in the UK using paper maps. I remember being really lost on the way to a show in a venue I’d never been in before. I was really late for this gig, and I was frustrated, and I was thinking, ‘Why am I doing this? This is totally going against the fact that I’m supposed to be freeing up all this time!’ But I would never have given up on the idea. The plan was I wanted to free myself to write every day, then that led to material, which is the comedian’s thing, frustrating at the time, and then, a day later, you’re like, ‘That was funny, though’.”

Chris is conscious that the show isn’t monothematic, “I don’t want people to be turned off, thinking, ‘He’s only going to be talking about being off his phone for an hour and 20 minutes’. It’s about that, but then about my kids and my parents. It kind of all revolves around one story where I was in the hospital for a day, me caring more about getting to a gig than my actual health in the hospital, and it feeds back in to my phone. It’s storytelling. There’s random bits and jokes in there that have nothing to do with online, but it all ties in.”

Reflecting on how his venue sizes have been increasing, Chris notes the progress. “I remember, when I started touring, I think the first gig I did was the small room in the Opera House; it was about 80 people, and I was buzzing, because it sold out. I was thinking, ‘This is incredible. This is absolutely amazing.’

"And I still feel that way about that gig now. Then, the following year, I was going slightly bigger, like The Crane Lane, and then it was The Everyman. And now Live At The Marquee. It’s a bit of a pinch-me moment. Sitting in the crowd for Joanne and for Tommy, thinking, ‘I want to do this’. It’s all well and good, dreaming about it, but then I said it out loud a few times and said it to a few people, ‘I’d love to do The Marquee, I’d love to do The Marquee’. Bren, from Aiken Promotions, said to me about two years ago, ‘We’ll do it, we’ll get there’. That unlocked a little bit more belief.”