Bob’s unique Blundabus brings Comedy Carnival in new direction

BY PATRICK FLAHERTY

The morning bus commute might bring stress and anxiety to workers and students alike, but an English comic hopes that his double-decker bus will only bring good cheer when it features in this year’s Vodafone Galway Comedy Carnival.

Bob Slayer’s award-winning ‘Blundabus’, is a London bus, which he has converted into a 45-seater venue and bar. And it’s in the city’s Eyre Square, this weekend, for what should be Comedy Carnival highlight.

At a launch for the Festival, held in NUIG on Tuesday, the Ludlow funny man explained he ended up touring in a London bus.

“I’ve put gigs on in all sort of strange venues, in empty shops, in other vehicles. But they’re always temporary.  An accountant in England wanted me to do a gig in a unique venue, and I just had the idea that I if I did it on the bus, at the end of the festival, I could drive it away and keep it. So, why’s it on a bus? So I could keep the bugger.”

The bus has a bar and ticket office on the lower deck, while there’s a unique 45-seater theatre upstairs.

“It’s a nice space. You do the gig side-on, and you’ve got such a lovely close-up front row. You can see everybody and you end up having a good old chat with folks, finding out about folks, including folks. It’s truly intimate,” Bob says.

The setting has been applauded by various comics, too. Bob believes that’s because the unique atmosphere allows for a set unlike anything they can do elsewhere.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.