Reviewed by: Ruby & Korey Thomas
Edited by: Kaitlyn Smith
★★★★½ 4.5/5
Ryan Carrick’s This Genuinely Did Happen is a fun hour of stand-up based around stories from his childhood and growing up in Ireland, with a lot of the comedy coming from experiences that felt very relatable to an Irish audience.
The show starts with Carrick talking about being a child at a family Christmas party, where he couldn’t bring himself to get up and sing in front of his family. From there, he moves through stories about his childhood and growing up in Ireland, with that story helping to create a thread that runs through the show rather than everything feeling completely separate.
A lot of the material was relatable, especially from an Irish point of view, and that was something Ruby and Korey both enjoyed about it. The show stays fairly light and fun throughout, with Carrick taking those experiences from growing up and turning them into stand-up.
Not every joke lands in exactly the same way, with Korey estimating afterwards that around “80-90% landed”. There were also jokes that got more of an eye-roll or groan from the audience, but those moments seemed to be part of the joke too, with Carrick appearing to know exactly what kind of reaction he was getting from the room.
Going into the show, there was some uncertainty over how Carrick’s comedy would translate from Instagram to live stand-up. Knowing that someone is funny on Instagram doesn’t automatically mean they’ll be as funny in a live show, but that wasn’t an issue here.
Ruby described Carrick afterwards as “a good translation of an Instagram comedian into a real-life comedian”, with his comedy working just as well away from social media.
There was also another, slightly less serious, point of relatability for Korey: Carrick is bald.
“I enjoy that he’s bald because Korey’s bald. I’m also bald,” he joked afterwards, before the shared baldness was described as creating a “personal and emotional” connection.
An important consideration in any comedy review, obviously.
The show ends with Carrick performing a cover of Dido’s White Flag, which was also a hit with Ruby and Korey. It clearly stayed with them afterwards, considering they were already talking about spending the rest of the night playing White Flag to each other.
Overall, Ruby described This Genuinely Did Happen as “kind and fun” and “a bit of light entertainment”, something Korey agreed with. Between the relatable Irish stories, the humour and Carrick’s move from Instagram comedy to performing live, both left having really enjoyed the show and Carrick’s final performance of his Dublin Fringe run.
