The Vodafone Comedy Festival kicks off this Thursday at Dublin's Iveagh Gardens, with a super line-up of funny people just waiting to make you laugh heartily in a large tent filled with other people.

To celebrate that fact, we've put together a list of factoids about some of the comedians playing this year's festival. 

1) As well as being possibly the funniest man in Ireland, DAVID O'DOHERTY is also a keen cyclist. Before he made it big in the comedy world, he worked in a bike repair shop in Dublin and also incorporated his love of the sport into his song 'W*nk on a Bike'.

2) As well as being possibly the funniest woman in Ireland, MAEVE HIGGINS has written two very funny essay collections – 'We Have a Good Time... Don't We?' and 'Off You Go'.

3) Before becoming a full-time comedian, BILL BURR went to college in Boston and obtained a B. Sc. in Radio – which might go some way to explaining his very popular podcast 'Bill Burr's Monday Morning Podcast', which has been running since 2007.

4) ADAM BUXTON is a former schoolmate of Louis Theroux's; they, along with his one-time sidekick Joe Cornish, became friends at the super-posh Westminster School in London.

5) American comedian JOE DEROSA is known for his acting, writing, podcasting and comedic skills – but he has also released 'serious' music under various pseudonyms, including Salsa Windfall, Funeral intheMirror and DemonRiot.

6) New Jersey comedian CHRIS GETHARD is a huge fan of The Smiths and has two Smiths-related tattoos; one is of Morrissey's signature and the other is a line from the song 'I Know It's Over' that says 'It takes strength to be gentle and kind.'

7) SARA PASCOE'S dad Derek was in a '70s rock band called Flintlock, who appeared on TV shows like Blue Peter, Top of the Pops and Magpie. Her grandmother Rosa Newmarch was famous for writing about classical music in the late 19th/early 20th century.

8) BARRY MURPHY is best known for his work with Apres Match, but did you know he was also the co-creator of one of RTE's finest comedy series, 'Soupy Norman'? (All episodes are on YouTube, so go and watch them immediately).