Ed Byrne

Award-winning comedian Ed Byrne has 25 years of stand-up and television experience under his belt, on stage and screen and as a regular on Mock the Week and The Graham Norton Show. He has also presented his own shows such as Dara & Ed’s Great Big Adventure and its follow-up, Dara & Ed’s Road to Mandalay, and as a semi-professional hill-walker he brought a refreshing warmth to BBC2’s recent hit The Pilgrimage.

But the Irishman is still best-known and appreciated for his stand-up performances. His new show If I’m Honest uses his own life experience to dig ever deeper into a father’s sense of responsibility, what it means to be a man in 2022, and whether he possesses any qualities whatsoever that are worth passing on to his two sons.

Ed litters his laughs with commentary on politics, rights and hot topics – but never too much to put people off coming along for a giggle. He says: “I did stuff about Trump and the Pizzagate right-wing conspiracy and a couple of reviewers said, ‘Oh, I would have liked to watch a whole show of this.’ And I think, ‘Well, you might have, but the average person who comes to see me would not like to see that.” I like to make a point or get something off my chest, or perhaps I’m talking about something that’s been on my mind, but the majority of stuff is just to get laughs.”

Making a point

“People who come to see me are not political activists necessarily, they’re regular folk. If you can make a point to them, in between talking about your struggles with ageing or discussing your hernia operation or whatever, you can toss in something that does give people pause as regards to how men should share the household chores.”

Ed, who broke through to fame in the mid-1990s when ‘New Lad’ became a genuine cultural phenomenon, reckons that if the times have changed, he has changed with them. The new material also takes his natural tendency towards

Favourite funnyman Ed Byrne is back on the road with his hilarious new stand-up show If I’m Honest. He talks to Shire ahead of visits to the patch in April and June. . He talks to Shire ahead of visits Good honest honest fun fun self-deprecation to unexpected extremes. “I do genuinely annoy myself,” he concedes. “That thing about your children being a reflection of you – it gives you the opportunity to build something out of the best of yourself, only for you to then see flashes of the worst of yourself in them. It’s a wake-up call about your own behaviour.”

Mid-life crises

If I’m Honest brilliantly elucidates the frustrations of middle age – and the show lives up to its title. “I’m bored looking for things,” Ed says. “I’m bored of trying to find stuff, because I can never find it and it is entirely my fault. Nobody’s hiding my stuff from me. Although my wife did actually move my passport on one occasion.” He insists that, while the show might have mordant and occasionally morbid aspects, it’s also not without its quietly triumphant “I’m bored looking for things, moments. “I thought I was being quite I’m bored of trying to find upbeat talking about stuff, because I can never find the small victories,” he says. “You know, it and it is entirely my fault” finding positivity in being able to spot when a cramp is about to happen in your leg and dealing with it before it does. I was happy with myself about that. You see comics who are my age and older but are still retaining a level of ‘cool’ and drawing a young crowd. I can’t deny I’m quite envious of that. But there’s also something very satisfying about your audience growing old with you.” Since the pandemic hit and live comedy as we know it temporarily ceased, Ed has done a few socially-distanced gigs as well as some on Zoom, but he cannot wait to get back on the road properly. It will have been 18 months since he last performed on tour. “I’ll have to see what still works and what doesn’t. I’ve missed doing stand-up the most during lockdown. No one told me: ‘You’re not going to be touring for 18 months,’ or I would have planned it better.” Ed will be at Newtown’s Theatr Hafren on 23rd April, Crewe Lyceum on 16th June, Bangor’s Theatr Bryn Terfel on 17th June and Oakengates, Telford on 23rd June.