I'd heard about Tommy Tiernan before I saw him at Best of the Fest, but had never actually heard any of his material. I was pleased to find that he lived up to his reputation.

He burst onto the stage excitedly, and immediately engaged the audience with his energy and enthusiasm. Notably, he immediately disdained the use of the microphone, preferring instead to holler at us from the stage, which worked well even though I could hear the strain in his voice towards the end.

His material was somewhat typically Irish in nature, making full use of his upbringing and sense of home, but the one stand out moment for me was his idea to get "a bunch of really strong lads on the west coast, and then maybe their brothers or something on the east coast, and just row Ireland down to Australia in the winter, so we can keep warm." This all accompanied with vigorous mime and good natured laugher aimed at himself.

I think that so long as his voice holds out, Tommy Tiernan has, as many other people have said before, a very good future in comedy.