A Right Pair of Comedians – Seeing Dave McSavage in Galway and Fergus Costello in Tullamore
I had the pleasure as part of Tullamore Rhymers Club of supporting Fergus Costello in his new show “Tell Me Lies Horse” last week in Joe Lees in Tullamore. And tonight just past, I was at the Roisin Dubh here in Galway where I saw Dave McSavage, who was savage, if you will pardon the appalling pun!
Fergus is a name well known in Ireland, and had a lot of new material as well as the old reliable’s we have had the pleasure of hearing in the Scene of the Rhyme over the last year. My two favourite gags of his are the story of the deaf aunt and how his name is Fergus, not Fergal, which is mellow like a cello… the other one being the story of being in Bangkok, and getting to bang with a local with a… well, you can guess the rest!
We in the Tullamore Rhymers Club had opened the show for him to good applause, and my pieces on the Developer Meets the Leprechaun at the M3, Long May Horses Shit the Streets, and The Silent Diner went down well, being staple pieces by now.
Cormac Lally read a new piece he has “All Cops are People” among other old favourites, Richard Brennan done his one that offends everybody equally, and David Hynes and David Mallaghan added with their usual zany slants on life!
Dave McSavage, seeing him live tonight, is something else. A poor Arabic looking chap up the front got a horrific ribbing – its true, never sit up at the front at a comedy gig! – and his poor girlfriend got called Mary Poppins! Part of McSavages gig is rotated on how jealous he is of others artists, with Tommy Tiernan being a popular victim of his “tribute”…
It wasn’t until he made a gag about his landlord in Galway (where he is here in a play called “The Pillowman”) and made a gag about depression, that it hit me… I was on the 409 Parkmore bus heading to Renmore last night when this familiar but strange dude sat opposite me. He was quiet for a while, and then asked “Do you suffer from depression?”… I felt sorry for him at first, and then thought I should smile more as I must look miserable when serious, but didn’t want conversation, gave him a dirty look and peered out the window. He struck up conversation then with another chap, and Id felt like giving him a piece of my mind, him and his bloody depression, and glad Iwas tonight that I didn’t or it could have been me lampooned on stage. He was gathering material for his act, riding around on the city buss’s acting strange!”
His act from The Bull, and his gag about messing up on stage in the Late Late Show were my favourite bits, I wont go into the gags each one as it would spoil the show if you go to see it, though each must be unique as he improvises gags as he stands on stage!
Best spent €12 I parted with in a while!