Callan Kicks The Year

mfceiling

Ernest wrote: »

Actually I disagree with most responses here. I thought this show was rather good. I found myself laughing several times despite having braced myself for another RTE comedy disaster like Mario Rosenstock's show and Irish Pictorial Weekly.

Here there were really excellent, skillful and amusing impressions of Brian Dobson, David Davin Power, Sharon Nee Beolan, Marian Finucane, Miriam O'Callaghan, Pascal Sheehy, Des Cahill, James Reilly, Mee-Haul Martin, Lucinda Crawthump, etc with well-observed funny lines. The Dundalk Abbey sketch was amusing when I got the hang of what they were driving at. The Gerry Adams cleaning-up sketch was clever though not all that funny. The Ryan Tubridy and Tom Cruise impressions were good and even funny. The Fiann Fail pack in disarray was good too, I thought.

Not everything on the show worked, though. The Enda Kenny impression was not good enough and the Troika sketch fairly weak, I thought. The George Hook family(?) scene was poor with everybody in the room except George having balded heads stuck on, for some reason I couldn't fathom and stuffing their mouths in a disgusting manner. The President Higgins sketch might have been funny if they had left out that annoying little shrieking whinny they have the President doing which is neither accurate nor amusing. The John Kelly item (The Works) did not work well either despite its clever atmospheric introduction. The Daithi O Shea impersonation was off the mark too. The long Derek Mooney sketch was not very funny and seemed to go on interminably (a common fault with RTE comedy).

This was a one-hour long programme and, to be fair, it was clever and funny and perhaps the best comedy sketch show RTE have produced so far.

Sorry Ernest but Barry Murphy is miles ahead of anyone in this country at political satire.

smcgiff

Pretty much what Ernest said.

Although I thought the Daithi sketch worked very well.

Maybe it's because I've seen more of Mario, I've found far more in Callan's sketch's than Mario's, which more often than not leave me cold.

Radio5

Some of it was really good. Des Cahill, the 6 One crowd and the Fianna Failers were good. The Derek Mooney one wasn't bad but as Earnest says it needed to be shorter.

CountyHurler

mfceiling wrote: »

Sorry Ernest but Barry Murphy is miles ahead of anyone in this country at political satire.

The problem with every comedy show they try to do is that they give ONE a shot to do the whole thing himself... either Barry Murphy, Risteard Cooper, Rosenstock or Callan.. who then try to do ALL the impressions themselves..

I think The State Of Us was a good example..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcdV9EAg2IQ

It apparently was co-written by the insufferable Gerry Stembrige, but Risteard Cooper acts ALL of the roles, which meant that some of the impressions were excellent (like Pat Kenny) and some were very poor.

The only way that they could make a top comedy/parody show is to have a few of the guys join forces.. This would be difficult, especially given the history between Rosenstock and Callan, but no one man can do ALL the impressions and carry a whole comedy series on his own.

tommytee

The show was (surprisingly) terrible, expected better :-(

Larbre34

LOSTfan57 wrote: »

At least the blonde woman is kinda decent looking.....i guess thats a highlight I guess

Brid O'Connor. She made a very good stab at Sharon Linolium and Miriam, just a pity the running gag was awful. She is a bit of a curvy fox though in fairness, looked great filling Miriams gúna! Georgia Salpa looks like an alien/fish.

A few bits of the show were funny and he takes off some people much better than others, but overall he works better on the radio. Why RTE thought there was a niche for ANOTHER satire show after Mario, Pictorial Weekly and Savage Eye is beyond me, Id just rather they did one decent one rather than 4 average tending to sh1te offerings.

dublinman1990

I looked at the whole hour of this show and didn't find one bit of it funny at all.

Callan should stick to the radio more often than on TV because I found it brutal to watch and no feelings to naturally laugh at this whatsoever.

Truly awful stuff from RTE; especially on New Year's Eve.

dukedalton

CountyHurler wrote: »

I think it should be noted that it is extremely hard to write, produce and act out all of the sketches AND be funny doing it... I would be the first to criticise Callan if it was bad, but it was more than passable... A few hits and a few misses, but it was a good effort.

It being difficult is no excuse. Comedy is his profession, for which he's paid well with our license fee. If it was easy we'd all be doing it. I could have performed better sketches than some of the rubbish he served up.

JP Liz V1

Looks like he is getting a series on RTE starting soon

Welsh Megaman

Bump that thread!

Next Tuesday (30th.) at 9.30pm

http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/callankickstheyear.html

Hopefully, less 'Wreck-It Reilly' - a bit overdone at this point.

MJ23

Awful. He's not a bit funny. The same stupid gags over and over.

CatFromHue

I can't say I've ever watched his shows, mainly as there's so many impersonators out there already and they all do alot of the same people.

Ernest

Welsh Megaman wrote: »

Bump that thread!

Next Tuesday (30th.) at 9.30pm

http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/callankickstheyear.html

Hopefully, less 'Wreck-It Reilly' - a bit overdone at this point.

Hopefully, Callan's Tuesday next programme mentioned above won't be as bad as Mario Rosenstock's truly awful effort the other night.

Baggy Trousers

I like this Callan show. The man is gifted even if some of the sketches are a bit lame.

Gits_bone

These two ************ should stick to the radio. Thing is they can't make enough money off radio impersonations so they try and do live shows which are ****e.

take everything

Given the scarcity of Irish satire around (apart from the Dail I suppose) it might be worth a watch.

whisky_galore

No.

Welsh Megaman

Eh...nice cheerleaders :pac:

Lady Chatterton

Threads merged.

Harry Angstrom

I enjoyed that.

Welsh Megaman

That bit about the IFTA'S was quite funny, but the Imelda May was a bit cringeworthy.

Lady Chatterton

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

I enjoyed that.

'That's nice'



I really need to stop watching Mrs. Brown's Boys

Mr E

Good fun for the most part. Marty, Imelda and BOD/Amy were awful though.

Loved Daithi getting more drunk as the show went on.

Charlie19

I never heard of him before tonight but I actually enjoyed that, I'd say it's the first rte show to last more than five minutes on my tv, since love hate.

Triboro

Gerry and Mary Lou bits were good... Load a crap other than that!!

Baggy Trousers

Well scripted and funny.

Harry Angstrom

It beat the socks off Mario Rosenstock's crap. Oliver Callan is hugely under-rated, in my opinion.....

Atlantic Dawn

Was terrible Joe.

CountyHurler

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

It beat the socks off Mario Rosenstock's crap. Oliver Callan is hugely under-rated, in my opinion.....

What about the material Harry, I need to know about the material....

Harry Angstrom

CountyHurler wrote: »

What about the material Harry, I need to know about the material....

Material is much improved

It's as good as the mimicry these days.