Time to take stock for Byrne
LOVEABLE: Byrne
AFTER 14 years performing comedy, Ed Byrne’s latest show Different Class displays a subtle change in direction.
Don’t worry, the same irritable Irish fella with the honed drollery who famously deconstructed Alanis Morrisette’s appallingly penned - and hugely missing the point - Ironic song is still very much in evidence.
But on reaching the bedded in age of 36, Byrne finds himself looking both backwards and forwards with material that examines his childhood and his parents while looking to the future recounting the tribulations of arranging his wedding.
“I’m at an age that I remember my dad being. I can remember people asking me how old my dad was and me saying 35/36.
Infamous anger
"I think that was part of the reason that in this show I started doing stuff about my Dad and what he was like when I was a kid.”
Plus it gave a name to the show that would stem from that material and experience of changing class from your parents.
“It was partly because I was writing material about him and the whole class thing at the time when I went, oh maybe I should make this show about class,” he explains.
Elsewhere in the show there’s plenty of evidence that Byrne’s infamous anger hasn’t diminished, he still has the kind of delightfully irascible nature that can make a puppy tremble at 50 paces.
It’s not as if he’s been taking up yoga to calm his mind and spirit.
Rant
Nor will he be partaking in the WAGS (the acronym refers to footballer’s wives and girlfriend’s for those that have been on a cruise around Saturn and its moons for the past few years and have missed the phenomena) workout on DVD, a rant about which is one of the pieces of material he has had to change from his Edinburgh Fringe run.
“It was working very well in Edinburgh, but the WAGS and the WAGS workout DVD for some reason wasn’t going as well - and then I had a couple of girls come up after the show one night and complain to me that they thought it was misogynist.
'They wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to explain that the point I was making was a feminist point - that I was dismayed at the idea that women were just aspiring to be the husband of somebody else.
"That to me is a bad direction, an unhealthy thing for women to be aspiring to and they were like, no, you’re just slagging off women.
"No you idiots! But I thought if two people are coming up to you and misinterpreting that there’s a possibility that others are too. So that’s been changed just a little bit.”
Riverside
He tweaked the show elsewhere too. Having played a big room at the Edinburgh festival for a month he suddenly found himself in a much smaller space at the Riverside Studios in London for the next leg of the tour.
“I got used to doing it in the smaller place, because the room I was doing it in in the Riverside was half the size as the one I was in in Edinburgh and what was kind of curious was I felt I did have to change it slightly or just change the delivery somewhat for talking to an audience half the size.
"Almost like the difference between stadium rock and indie rock. I got very used to that room in Edinburgh and it was quite sizable then you’re down to, on some nights, playing to a hundred people it’s a very different animal so I feel I know the show inside and out now and could perform it anywhere from a stadium to someone’s bedroom.
"It took a while to get that though, to make those adjustments.”
So how was the run in Edinburgh for the seasoned festival performer? “It sold really well, the audiences really enjoyed it and the reviews were really nice.
Pleasant walk
"It’s just nice when all three things fall into place. Then at the same time I had a few excursions into the Highlands to go hill walking and I did a lot of sitting in, playing DVDs and playing the Xbox.
"I didn’t go crazy this Edinburgh hardly at all, I had four nights where I stayed out late.”
Hill walking? More evidence of a new phase in Byrne’s life? In fact the last time we spoke to him Byrne was out walking and drawing on the clean country air with friend and fellow comic Glenn Wool.
“We were out around Essex I believe. Yes we were doing a hike around my environs, a 10-mile thing beginning and ending in Thaxted. It was quite a pleasant walk that day, yeah.
"It’s a bit flat round Essex I tend to try and get up to the Highlands in Scotland and to do my climbing.”
It’s a long way from the wine, women and mischief-making reputation young comedians have.
But one thing’s for sure, it’s not smoothed the edge of Byrne’s wit, he’s still as sharp as ever.
Ed Byrne plays the Stockport Plaza on Tuesday, February 3. Call 0161 477 7779. He then plays The Lowry on Saturday, March 14. Call 0870 787 5780.
Published: Sat, 20 December, 2008
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