I’m Grand Mam: Happy Campers
3Olympia Theatre, Dublin
★★★★☆
If you’ve ever fancied experiencing the high-octane furore of a hen party but don’t have a soon-to-be married woman in your immediate circle, consider attending I’m Grand Mam’s Happy Campers show.
In the Happy Campers tour, Kevin Twomey and PJ Kirby of the I’m Grand Mam podcast present as a queer Laurel and Hardy whose shared love of dance manifests itself in physical-comedy routines, off-the-cuff improvisations and audience participation.
The dance skit they kick off with, in which they joke about being lost in the woods – “Get off Grindr: it’s Google Maps we need!” – sets the tone for the rest of the two-hour production.
A podcast live show often requires some homework beforehand: you need to know the in-jokes, follow the hosts on social media, understand the community’s references. I’m Grand Mam presents no such challenge, but you do need to be in the mood for a party, ideally the kind that involves bottomless flutes of prosecco, co-ordinated pink outfits and rowdy women.
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Twomey and Kirby’s weekly podcast is a chatty unscripted affair on which the presenters catch up and discuss a theme. The pair have amassed tens of thousands of listeners for their casual antics since they hit the scene, in 2019.
The live show is much more dynamic. Happy Campers has a loose boy-scouts theme, where camp is a double entendre referring to both the outdoorsy kind and the Susan Sontag kind.
Twomey and Kirby must obtain scouting badges, although they won’t be ones familiar to Irish scouts: the Bro badge, the If She Was Chocolate She’d Eat Herself badge, the Horny as Hell badge, the Don’t Make Me Sing badge and the Loose Lips badge.
Each is earned via a skit, anecdote, dance routine or challenge for an audience member to win podcast merchandise. One involves a tug of war, another a lap-dance routine.
The show is high octane, at times outrageous and on occasion indulgent, the hosts veering off piste to share anecdotes and stories. The tales and jokes are interspersed with gay-club anthems that provide a feelgood breather from the laughter.
The appeal of a comedy podcast over a stand-up routine or a sitcom is its conversational element, and Happy Campers is a raucous back-and-forth between its hosts and audience members giddy with excitement. It’s as if all 1,240 attendees are on one big night out.
