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Mock the Week star Ed
Byrne Interview
Interview by Veronica Lee and photo
by Roslyn Gaunt
UK TV personality and Mock the Week
star, Ed
Byrne is an established touring
favourite, and despite his youthful looks the Irishman recently marked up 20
years as a comic. His latest show of observational comedy, Outside, Looking
In, covers a wide range of subjects; from a recent gastric illness to the
success of UKIP; but he talks a lot about his family and it's his most
personal yet.
"I didn't make a conscious effort to write a more personal show, but that
was what was coming out when I started writing it," Ed says.
"People come to see me for a laugh and I would like to think they go away
thinking the show is quite heartwarming. A lot of comics may talk about the
same stuff, but what makes it mine is that what I'm saying is what I
genuinely think on this subject, and I try to make it as funny as I can. I
think we all mine our lives to some degree or other."
Ed is adamant that he will keep his two young sons out of the celebrity
spotlight, so don't expect an "At Home With Ed Byrne and Family"
in OK! any time soon. But in Outside, Looking In, he shows a picture of
one of his sons; the denouement of a bittersweet story about buying new
shoes; which not only illustrates it perfectly, but produces an
"Aaaah" moment. "I'm aware that they haven't given me
permission to talk about them and that there will come a point when I
can't," Ed says. "John Bishop, for example, has stopped
talking about his [much older] children
on stage because people know who they are. I talk about them
in pretty abstract terms, because what I'm discussing is the act of
parenting, and you can't talk about that without mentioning your own
children. And there isn't anything in this show that would make them at a
later date say, 'I don't like this'."
But while there is a lot of personal reflection in his new show, Ed also
ponders on matters political; the story about his son sparks a passionate
section about how we label young children, for instance, and he also talks
about feminism and transgenderism.
I ask Ed if dipping a toe into the transgender debate (for which some have
been vilified on social media) isn't a little risky. "It has become
such a big subject because of Caitlyn Jenner [the former athlete Bruce
Jenner, who transitioned earlier this year] and some Twitter trolls were
refusing to acknowledge her as anything but Bruce. I thought it was
interesting that it stills divides people. I call it the thorniest issue
since Jesus was fitted for a hat."
The feminist slant to the new show was sparked by Ed's reflections on his
early days in comedy and, strikingly, he admits to being a little
uncomfortable about some of his more laddish material back then. "My
comedy reflected my life at that time; single and enjoying myself; and most
of it was fairly harmless 'the difference between men and women' kind of
thing. But some of the stuff about an ex-girlfriend I can see was a bit
angry and I wouldn't do it now."
He says he is more aware of how men and women interact in the modern world
and is sometimes surprised by the difference in his reactions to things as a
man in his forties to when he was twentysomething. "I started watching Californication [the US dark comedy starring David
Duchovny as a sex addict] but I found it insulting because I'm
expected to empathise with him. His character behaves so unconscionably that
I couldn't watch the 2nd series. I don't how much of that is simply
getting older, or that times have changed, or mixing with a broader group of
people. Interestingly I find Twitter can expand your horizons; I've started
following all sorts of people on it and it's good to get a different take on
things."
I ask Ed, 43, if he still likes touring after 2 decades. "Apart from
the travel involved, which no comic likes, I love it, because you have
people responding to something that you have written alone in your office,
and the work comes alive in a room of people. I like the television things I
do, but nothing can beat a live comedy audience."
In any spare time he has, Ed is a hill walker; when in Scotland he
"bags" Munros (peaks above 3,000ft, he's at 75) and the completist,
slightly geeky side side of him, he admits, means that elsewhere in the
British Isles he also collects "county tops" - the highest
point in the county. "I've downloaded an app for them," he
says with a laugh.. "and have started making a list of those I've
done."
He's currently writing a sitcom set in an outdoors shop, and I ask if he
plans to introduce his sons to the pleasures of outdoors. "My wife,
Claire, and I already have. So far they love it, camping and canoeing, that
sort of thing. As they're growing it's hard to be apart from them when I'm
on tour, and I try not to be away for more than a couple of days at a time,
but one of the great things about my job is that it means I can spend a lot
of time with them when I'm home."
He will be performing on Merseyside on the following dates:-
► Friday, 11
March 2016, he will be in WARRINGTON,
at the Parr Hall, to book tickets call:- 01925 442345.
► Saturday, 12
March 2016, he will be in LIVERPOOL,
at the The Auditorium, to book tickets call:- 0844 8000 400.
► On Friday, 22
April 2016, he will be in SOUTHPORT,
at the Atkinson, to book tickets call:-
01704 533333. |
