US, nervous? Not at all, they say. Ha, ha, ha. They are ashen faced, clutching the arms of their chairs and hyper-ventilating but no, they're not nervous. Hah.
Six finalists in the RTE New Comedy Awards finale are about to entertain us. Our compere, Ed Byrne, in flowing hair and a black dress coat, welcomes us to the "glitzy show extravaganza" at Vicar Street, where "we're off to a swimming start". There will be no rude stuff, he promises.
Byrne is one of Ireland's most acclaimed comedians. Builders, taxi drivers, hands-free mobile phone users and dentists all meet with his disapproval. As for dental hygienists, well, he's got very bad gums and he'd prefer to go to Amsterdam to lie on a table and be abused by a woman, he says.
Anyway, no women will darken the stage of Vicar Street tonight. They are the alsorans. They just didn't make the final. Three of them sit in the audience cheering on the guys. Recruitment consultant Brenda Freeney, multi-media tutor Rhona Dwyer and Eircom employee Mary Frances McKenna entered the competition which trawled the country for new comic talent some weeks ago. "Now, we're bitter and twisted," McKenna jokes.
James Gouldsbury looks edgy as he prepares to go on stage at Vicar Street. In the audience his mother Joan Gouldsbury and sister, Siobhan Gouldsbury, and Paul Ahern, Siobhan's fiance of six days (they got engaged on Sunday), are cheering him on. "He's brilliant," says his mother, with stunning impartiality.
Another finalist, Karl Spain, is here from Limerick, with about 15 supporters - "mainly women", he says modestly. His brother, Garry Spain, an engineer, is also here.
From Cork, with not a flicker of fear is Toby Murphy. It's that old Cork confidence, you see. His parents, Jerry and Anne Coughlan, are here along with his girlfriend, Louise Lyons and his siblings, Carol, Joy and Trevor Coughlan.
Billy McGrath, the newly-appointed head of entertainment at RTE television, who starts his new job on Monday, was once a stand-up comedian.
Comedians are, he says, "intelligent and self-reflective". Why do they do it? "Pure ego." Dubliner Mathew Sadlier, who is a doctor at St Vincent's Hospital, is hopping up and down, bursting with adrenalin, waiting for his turn in the spotlight. His girlfriend, Edel Goulden, from Sligo, wishes him luck. The other finalists are Gregory Prendergast and Killian Power.
Rich Hall, this year's Perrier comedy award-winner at the Edinburgh Festival, pops in "to measure the stage". He's still breathless after just arriving in (by plane) from Nevada. He'll be entertaining the troops in Vicar Street tonight when he takes on the fictional persona of US jailbird Otis Lee Crenshaw.
The comedy proves hilarious. The show is filmed. The joint winners of the RTE Comedy Awards - James Gouldsbury and Karl Spain - are announced and the night's events will be screened on Monday night, Network 2, 9.45 p.m.