Headwreckers

This was billed as experimental comedy from a team of rising Irish performers and it included a sketch about Jew-hating guards in Nazi concentration camps, and another in which a man beat a surly shop assistant half to death with a tennis racket, and another in which a woman unable to settle her bills allowed the man to whom she owed money to bugger her, in lieu.

Needless to add, these sketches contained nuances that cannot be conveyed on the page, but even with nuances they were about as funny as pleurisy.

On the other hand, I once panned the first episode of a new sitcom about three Irish priests living somewhere called Craggy Island, so what do I know? All I'll say is Comedy Lab that plunged me into gloom, and the monologue from the terminally ill woman (The Last Word) that I found uplifting.

The setting: a dimmed-out writing room. The characters: five comedians from Dublin, primarily playing themselves. The premise: what level of hilarity can then achieve by interchanging self-referential jokes with freshly squeezed sketches?

While the answer is probably subjective, we can safely declare this circle of writers to be talented. The 'Bizarre Medical Conditions' routine is both technically and contextually unique, featuring an Extraordinary Person whose voice is out of sync with his mouth. Less winning are the 'Accidental Gay Moments', utilised, in any case, as fillers, while semi-tasteless issues related to predators, Hitler and boxing are both affably and ambitiously tackled. For the latter sketch, which also shares space with the closing credits, Declan Rooney employs MJ moves to strike down his opponent, with 'Billy Jean' glittered on his back.

We have always known we are an island of hilarious people. And yet another bunch of comedians from these shores are about to make it big abroad, thanks to this new Comedy Lab programme tonight.

Headwreckers is the brainchild of the weird and wonderful David McSavage and it was conceived at the International Bar comedy club.

David and fellow Irish stand-ups James Goldsbury, John Colleary, Eleanor Tiernan and Declan Rooney came up with the idea of making a sketch show about a group of comedians who are making a sketch show.

It's all about the biggest losers, the worst ideas and the most embarrassing programme within a programme you will ever have seen.

McSavage is a national treasure at this stage of his comedy career here. So it's about time other people were allowed to witness the bizarre musings of McSavage for themselves.

Hopefully we'll see more of Headwreckers later in the year.

This Comedy Lab pilot brings together a motley crew of Irish stand-ups for a meta-take on the sketch show. While you've got to credit them with a new angle (we've already had YouTube-style, CGI-style and TV EPG-style this year) some of the sketches don't quite live up to the original premise.

Featuring David McSavage, James Goldsbury, John Colleary, Eleanor Tiernan and Declan Rooney, who sit around debating ideas and influencing each others' sketches mid-show. Definitely enough ideas for a series.