As the holiday season brightens up and another eventful year nears end, three comics from England, Ireland and Australia are teaming up to bring Doha one last mega comedy show of the year.
Put together by The Laughter Factory, the regular star of television shows, Ian Stone will join Irish A-lister Jarlath Regan and the “straight-talking” Wayne Deakin for the show to be hosted by Grand Hyatt on two nights from December 5.
“To make sure the holiday season goes off with a bang, we have put together a special package for group bookings in December. The bill we have put together for December is something else, starring an Englishman, an Irishman, and an Australian,” says the Laughter Factory.
Arriving fresh from making headlines for his brashly confessional approach with this year’s Edinburgh Fringe show, Talk Hard, Wayne Deakin is a living, breathing proof you can make a good joke out of anything, say the organisers. “Deakin is a car crash too explosive to take your eyes off. Just wait and see if he plays his trademark live truth or dare, and see for yourself.”
Currently based in London, Deakin has more than 15 years of experience touring across Europe, North America, Australia and Asia.
Praised as “seriously funny” by The Guardian and ranked amongst the top ten stand-ups in Britain by The Independent, Ian Stone can lay claim to being one of the most respected comedians working in the UK right now.
After 20 years in the business, Stone’s style has been honed to a delicate art, edgy and provocative, fearlessly topical, yet laid-back and self-deprecating. Ian returns to the region midway through a never ending tour which has seen him gig on four continents.
He was notably the first British stand-up to perform in Moscow, and the first comic onstage at The Comedy Store in Mumbai.
Stone’s TV credits match his high profile, with regular appearances on hit shows including the BBC’s Mock the Week, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and The Stand Up Show, ITV’s Saturday Live, Live at Jongleurs and The Katy Brand Show, Channel 4’s The 11 O’Clock Show, Channel 5’s The Comedy Store and Paramount’s The World Stands Up.
A footie fanatic, Stone will be familiar to supporters as the presenter of ESPN’s award-winning Off the Ball, which later became BT Sport’s The Football’s On, a long-running, weekly comedy sports panel which welcomed Alan Davies, Dara O’Briain, Lee Mack, Omid Djalili, Ardal O’Hanlon and Phil Jupitus in its first incarnation, and Frankie Boyle, Micky Flanagan, David Baddiel, Sean Lock and Alan Davies in its second.
On the radio, Ian is a regular on many sports shows, including BBC Radio 5 Live’s Fighting Talk. He co-hosted Absolute Radio’s Rock n’ Roll Football, and is a repeat guest on Ed Byrne’s review show What’s So Funny.
The third comic on the line up, Jarlath Regan is writer, broadcaster, illustrator, podcaster and stand-up comic. He has turned his hand to many pursuits and succeeded at them all.
Among the most multi-talented performers on the planet, this Irish émigré may today be best known for the overnight success of his smash podcast, An Irishman Abroad.
The concept sees Regan interview the Emerald Isle’s most famous exports, with previous guests of the 100-plus episodes including Graham Linehan, Dara O’Briain, Chris O’Dowd and musician Lisa Hannigan.
Since launching in 2013, the show has attracted a global audience and glowing praise from all corners. After topping the downloads chart, An Irishman Abroad was named the best new podcast in iTunes Best of 2013 list.
The show has been unanimously praised by the press, including The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, which said it “could turn out to be one of the biggest podcasts since Ricky Gervais picked up a microphone.”
Several years earlier came his first book, How To Break Bad News, which collected Jarlath’s hilarious, darkly comedic greeting cards. Such a unique concept gained many celebrity fans, including Ardal O’Hanlon who called it “original, funny and deliciously wrong.”
It was followed up by a second compendium of 200 new comedic illustrations, Putting A Ring On It – What Not To Do When Attempting To Get Married, another cult hit in 2011.
Shortly after first taking to the stage in 2003 he was instantly lauded as a finalist in notable national competitions So You Think You’re Funny and the BBC New Comedy Awards.
Ian Stone can lay claim to being one of the most respected comedians working in the UK right now.
