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comedy · Friday 28 August 2026 · 8:00pm 
Al Porter
At Moat Theatre · Moat Theatre, Ballina, Co. Mayo
At Moat Theatre · Moat Theatre, Ballina, Co. Mayo
Al Porter brings his critically acclaimed stand-up show ALGORITHM to the Moat Theatre in Ballina on Friday 28 August 2026. If you have seen Porter before, you know what you are in for - high-energy, warm, honest comedy that feels like it was written about people you actually know. If you have not, this is a very good place to start. The show suits anyone who has ever shared a house with strangers, felt overshadowed by a sibling, or wondered what an algorithm makes of their life choices.
ALGORITHM is Porter’s follow-up to his sold-out 2023/24 national tour, and it arrives with four-star reviews and praise for “irrepressible stand-up storytelling.” The show picks apart the small indignities of modern life - navigating house-shares in your thirties, the particular pain of being the not-golden-child, parents rattling around an empty house - and holds them up to the light. The running thread is attention: how it shapes the way we see ourselves online and off, and what it actually takes to find a formula for living in a world that feels perpetually on fire.
Porter was previously nominated for a Perrier Award at Edinburgh, and his comedy carries that festival sharpness alongside something genuinely warm. Audiences tend to leave in good spirits.
Ballina sits on the River Moy in north Mayo, about 40 minutes from Ireland West Airport Knock. From Dublin it is roughly three and a half hours by road via the N5; from Galway allow about two hours, and from Sligo around one hour. Bus Eireann serves Ballina from both Dublin and Galway. There is pay-and-display parking across the town centre, with lower-cost zones a short walk from the venue.
Ballina is better known for salmon than for stand-up, and the River Moy running through the town centre is reason enough to arrive early and take a walk along the banks. The Jackie Clarke Collection - a remarkable private archive of Irish historical documents - is free to visit and well worth an hour of your time. There is more to see in Ballina and across Co. Mayo.
Heading to Moat Theatre in Ballina? Mayo has plenty more to see. Read the Ballina area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.