Atom Tick: An Experimental Comedy Show Nov 27th/28th
Atom Tick is a new comedy venture from the surrealist minds of James Moran and Stéphane Bena Hanly, on at Pallas Project/Studios in The Coombe this Thursday and Friday evening. Chairs will be provided, but you must BYOB.
This is going to be good. Believe me, it’s gonna be an evening of severe, life-threatening enjoyment. I find it very difficult to convey why it’s going to be so good without sounding like it’s just weird for the sake of weird, so I refer to their own introduction of the event:
“Atom Tick is a piece of art-house comedy, an effort to create interesting comedy show with a performative, artistic bent. Atom Tick is a show told in three parts. It follows a presentation by two entrepreneurs as they try to gain support (both financial and emotional) from audience.Throughout the twenty minute presentation the duo discuss television shows, future technology and city planning. The presentation is then repeated two more times, taking place in the years 2014, 2114 and 3014. Jokes and concepts layer onto each other in interesting ways, each performance brings new ideas and puts interesting twists on previous ones. It’s a show about pop-culture, repetition, the internet and the future.
Atom Tick is a multi-media comedy extravaganza featuring video work, meditative type experiences, live demonstrations of future-tech prototypes and some round table script readings. It’s a show about the repetition, the future and critical pop-culture. It’s primarily funny, but also really interesting.”
I can’t speak with utmost confidence about Mr Bena Hanly, but from what I know of James Moran’s comedy, this should be a show that shakes your preconceptions of what a comedy performance will be and in doing so, leaves you wrong-footed and unsure of what to expect, allowing James and Stéphane to lead you by the hand into their world of strange self-aware giggles. The best way to get to grips with the show might just be their segment on RTE Culture file which you can listen to here. James Moran is a “cyberpsychologist and a comedian” and Stéphane is a “sculptor and a performance artist,” and they’re piloting a sitcom.
The coverage of the event from broadsheet shows how most people don’t quite know what to make of this sort of show, and the accompanying event video won’t leave you many more clues, but it will hopefully get you a bit more in the mood and get your brain connected with the right idea.
The event runs this Thursday and Friday (Nov 27th and 28th) at 6.30pm, with tickets available at the door for €7, or from eventbrite for €8.17 for those that enjoy the security of having a ticket in advance, or perhaps just relish in processing fees.
This is a comedy show where you don’t always need to laugh to find it funny, and where patience and engagement might reap the most laughs in the end. It’s about subverting your expectations.
“Atom Tick is a presentation for you, the audience, in which we, the presenters, make you want not what you think you want, but what we think we can make you think we want you to want. It’s not about what you want, it’s about what we want you to want.”
Show begins at 7pm SHARP!!! so arrive in time or fear pain of death.
Tumblr (highly recommended)
Words: Alison O’Shea