Just back from a flying visit to the Kilkenny's Carlsberg Cat Laughs Comedy Festival at the weekend. For me this wonderful little laugh-in kicks off the comedy festival season in the same way that Glastonbury kicks off the music festival season. But that is where the similarity ends. Kilkenny is a thoroughly non-muddy civilised affair, in which comedians from around the world are invited to perform in the pubs of this small, but beautifully put together Irish city.

This year's performers included Ardal O'Hanlon, Lee Mack, Dave Gorman and Tommy Tiernan, but for me the undisputed highlight was Ross Noble. On Thursday night he was the second act on at the Rivercourt Hotel and at 9.56pm, when he picked up the festival's yellow wooden plank of a logo and pretended it was Prince's guitar the Festival really began.

Noble is currently in the middle of a UK tour, so one might have expected him to simply lift an excerpt from his full show to fill his allotted 20 minutes. Instead, however, this master of improvisation simply played around with the scenery, tugging the curtain, peeling off a Moon-shaped banner from behind him. Of course he also did his favourite impersonation – Stephen Hawking – but this was a small drop in Noble's freestyling surrealist ocean.

On the following night Noble cropped up on another bill at the Ormonde Hotel. I wanted to catch as many new acts as possible while I was there so I said to myself that as soon as he repeats himself I will leave and catch a gig elsewhere. Noble came on, grabbed the logo and I thought here we go again. Except his mind was in a different place now and we got Noble doing a Klingon morphing into Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Paul Simon doing an impromptu gig in a Chinese restaurant before somehow becoming Bob Dylan with his brain flapping in the wind. If ever there was a definition of the phrase "you had to be there" this was it.

Another highlight of the weekend was Dave Gorman, returning to stand-up after years of doing strange quest-type shows. And one to watch is Hannah Gadsby, a quirky Tasmanian who is coming to the Edinburgh Festival in the summer and will surely end up in London too. Imagine a large lesbian who resembles a very young Eric Morecambe and you've got a hint of Gadsby. Her material is expertly crafted and often based on her upbringing. As she points out, her first name is a palindrome*, just like other members of her family: "Mum, dad, nan and my brother Kayak".

I had to leave earlier than planned so I missed various tantalising shows, not to mention the annual Ireland v Rest Of The World football match. I haven't heard the result yet, but the Irish usually win. I may not know who won the football, but Kilkenny is definitely a winner where comedy is concerned.

Ross Noble is at the Apollo Theatre, W1 for six weeks from 14 September. Information: 0844 412 4658; www.nimaxtheatres.com

*thanks to JonB for correcting me.