In a week that will mark St Patrick's Day, Easter and the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, an Irish comedy about Jesus and the War on Terror is being launched on iTunes.Jesus: The Guantanamo Years has already survived boycotts and bomb scares in Belfast, tangled with US immigration, and entertained audiences in Pakistan during the recent state of emergency.
The show portrays Jesus Christ returning to earth, but being stopped at US immigration, because He's a bearded, Middle-Eastern guy, prepared to die as a martyr.
From St Patrick's Day it will be available on iTunes for under €6.
The debut from Dublin comedian Abie Philbin Bowman, Jesus: The Guantanamo Years proved a sell-out hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Helped by an iconic poster (featuring Jesus in an orange jumpsuit), the show's overnight success was then replicated throughout Ireland before moving to London's West End.
The show's American debut was delayed, ironically, because of a hold-up at US immigration.
When it finally arrived, the show played to rapturous audiences. "One evening, we had seven Protestant ministers laughing in the front row," Bowman recalls.
"I'm glad they enjoyed the show. It would have been pretty ironic if they crucified me."
It was in Belfast that the show encountered the fiercest hostility. There was a bomb scare at the theatre and a DUP councillor called for the show to be boycotted.
"Regardless of whether you're Catholic or Protestant, surely phoning in a fake bomb warning counts as 'bearing false witness'. And I still can't believe I was attacked by the DUP for dressing up in orange and talking about Jesus," says Bowman.
His follow-up show, Environmentally Friendly Jihad debuts at the Galway Comedy Festival in the Town Hall Theatre, Galway on Friday, March 21 and Saturday March 22, at 8:30 pm
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