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theatre · Saturday 19 September 2026 · 8pm 
Mike Rice: Cruel Little Man
At Watergate Theatre · Parliament Street, Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny
At Watergate Theatre · Parliament Street, Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny
Mike Rice is a stand-up comedian from Kilkenny, and when he brings a show home it tends to feel a little different. Cruel Little Man is his full-length hour of character-driven comedy - dark, layered, frantic, and deeply personal. Rice has been described as one of Ireland’s finest new comedians, a finalist in RTE and BBC Best Young Comedians competitions, and has toured the show across the UK and Ireland through 2026. If you enjoy stand-up that goes somewhere unexpected, this is worth the Saturday night out.
Cruel Little Man blends Rice’s sharp one-liners with manic personal anecdotes and character work. Expect absurdist storytelling - doing psychedelics with his brother, a run-in with a Spanish sausage dog named Nino, medical misadventures, travel customs encounters - all delivered with the kind of controlled chaos that keeps an audience off balance in the best way. Reviewers have praised his “tremendous stage presence” and the sharply layered structure of the gags. He opens warm and conversational, gets the room on side, then pushes into edgier territory. The Watergate Theatre holds 324 seats and is a proper civic theatre - good sightlines, no bad seats, and a bar upstairs open during the show. This is stand-up in a real venue, not a back room.
Kilkenny city is well connected by road and rail. From Dublin, the M9 motorway gets you there in about 90 minutes. Irish Rail runs regular services from Dublin Heuston to Kilkenny MacDonagh station, roughly an hour and twenty minutes - the station is a ten-minute walk from the Watergate. From Waterford it is around 45 minutes by road. Parking in the city centre is available at the John Street car park and on surrounding streets, though Saturday evenings in Kilkenny fill up, so arriving a little early is sensible.
The show is at 8pm, which leaves the afternoon free. Kilkenny’s medieval mile - the castle, the cathedral, the alleyways between them - is compact enough to cover in a couple of hours on foot. There is more to see in Kilkenny and across Co. Kilkenny.
Heading to Watergate Theatre in Kilkenny? Kilkenny has plenty more to see. Read the Kilkenny area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.