Ed Byrne: Different Class
By Stuart Holmes | Mon, 16 March, 2009
IN keeping with the show’s title, Ed Byrne places himself somewhere between working class and middle class.
He has a large television now, and has eaten ‘home-kill’ pheasant, but he still feels that he fits into neither group.
He also concedes to lying somewhere between obscurity and fame, having released a DVD which was (to his indignant dismay) outsold by the WAGs workout.
Byrne’s questioning of his own place within the class system acts as a starting point for this new show, and he uses this effectively as a framework for the remainder of his typically playful antics.
Pet Hates
The Dubliner favours a grungy, unbuttoned checked shirt worn over a T-shirt during the first half of his performance, which suits his adolescent-minded musings and exaggerated rants.
His light-hearted reflections on the 80s highlight flaws with much loved pop culture from the decade. In particular, he criticises the Back to the Future trilogy which he loved in his youth, with his justification of plot loopholes being a testament to Byrne’s talent for trivial, yet jovial analysis.
He lets off steam about his pet hates (such as the WAGs), and tests the water with some edgy material, but has already counteracted any potential offences made when mocking his own struggles to be quick-witted in real life.
Young Talent
After the interval, Byrne modestly (yet knowingly) strolls on stage in a plush purple suit and immediately introduces a short performance from a promising young comic named Lewis Costello.
The 16 year old from Blackburn admirably performs a five minute routine in front of the sell out crowd at the Lyric Theatre. Byrne has taken Costello under his wing due to the age restrictions in the clubs he would usually frequent so early in his career, and he copes brilliantly in front of the dauntingly large audience.
He is stylistically reminiscent of Jason Manford, with his broad Northern accent running through a mixture of laddish humour, original observations, and a particularly clever deconstruction of Biblical events.
He has both the confidence and material to go far in a competitive industry, and is certainly a talent to watch out for in the near future.
Marital Bliss
When Byrne returns, he speaks largely of relationships and the personal experiences of his recent marriage, relying on solidarity from the fellow married men in the crowd to good effect.
His varied tales of married life are both endearing and extremely amusing, with his analogy regarding the male perspective of small details on “the happiest day of your life” resulting in one of the biggest laughs of the evening.
Byrne returns for a brief ‘impromptu’ encore in which he recounts some of the baffling audience behaviour he has encountered on the tour so far.
While he may be unsure which social class he fits into, as a comedian, it is clear that Byrne fits into a class of his own.
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