The Half Hour Comedy Club is pretty much what it says on the tin; a weekly half hour comedy show in the Botanic Inn in Belfast.

Half Hour Comedy Club

Each week sees new comedians take to the stage at 7pm on a Tuesday for a free show filled with comedy and craic, and if half an hour doesn’t do it for you, the comedians record a post-show podcast in someone’s car on a Belfast side-street afterwards.

You can have a listen to the Half Hour Comedy Club Podcast on iTunes by clicking here or by clicking play on the link below.

Listening to the latest instalment (recorded last July), comedians Dion Arnold, George Firehorse, Sara-Jade Davidson and Adam Laughlin pile into a Vauxhall Astra to chat, discuss the show and generally make a whole host of strange noises.

The start of the podcast rambles on a bit, and at times it feels like a bit of an inside joke (obviously if you haven’t been to the show it’s hard to keep up), but with new comedians each week it’s always going to be a bit chaotic. Luckily, after the first ten minutes or so, the comedians get into the swing of things and stop talking over each other. Over the course of the next 20 minutes or so, we get to know the comedians a bit better and it’s a bit like having a chat with a (really funny) mate. Relaxed, informal and a good laugh.

Overall the podcast is a good idea, I like the variety of comedians and the DIY spontaneity of it being recorded in a car after the show, but the publishing of the podcast doesn’t seem regular and the ad hoc nature is sort of lost when it’s not being uploaded until four months after the show. If this became a more regular and regulated thing, then I could definitely see Belfast’s comedy lovers embracing this little snippet of NI craic.

The Half Hour Comedy Club runs weekly at 7pm in the Botanic Inn, follow them on Facebook or Twitter for updates.

Laura Caldwell

Author: Laura Caldwell

Hi, I'm Laura. I'm 30 years old and have a degree in Journalism with Photo-Imaging at the University of Ulster. I have an undying love for Belfast and all that it has to offer, an undying love for sleeping, Tegan and Sara, trashy tv shows, foreign snack-foods and being irresponsible with money. I also quite like origami, reading, jazz, hip-hop, dubstep, anything acoustic and Food Network TV. I've written for The Big List, Culture NI, Chatterbox and The Echo, as well as writing for BBC Across the Line.