Comedian Ed Byrne to bring his new show featuring some "heart-wrenching" stuff to Lancashire
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
His 2023 appearance having sold-out, Irish comedian Ed Byrne returns to Lytham’s Lowther Pavilion on October 20 with his show ‘Tragedy Plus Time’ - which was named British Comedy Guide's Best Show of 2023 .
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Hide Ad52-year-old Ed, a stand up comedian of over thirty years, then comes backs to Lancashire two months later to perform at the Colne's Muni on December 7.
Find out all about the show - which has a surprising premise - in the below interview.
Q) What can audiences expect from Tragedy Plus Time?
Ed has taken a more serious approach to his latest comedy show as Tragedy Plus Time sees him venture into the world of grief and loss, a decision prompted by the passing of his younger brother Paul, aged just 44, in February 2022.
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Hide AdDuring the show, Ed takes the most difficult of subject matter and encourages the audience to laugh in its face in a way they would otherwise never do
Ed explained: “It’s something of a departure, and I’m slightly worried about that. I’ve never really had the desire to write a show that had an overly serious element to it. I got a lot of five-star reviews on the last show [2019’s If I’m Honest], but some four-star ones that opined, ‘well it’s funny, but that’s all it is…’ As if that’s not enough these days. Frankly, just being funny is a furrow I’ve been happy to occupy. But this new show features some heart-wrenching, soul-bearing stuff.
“I was in two minds about whether to do a show of this nature. Then I decided this was the subject I was going to tackle but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. But once I started down that road, that was it… Then my main worry was, how funny is it going to be and is it going to work?”
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And how did you find writing the show with that in mind?
Ed said: “The first time I performed it, it lasted more than an hour. That surprised me, but it was too long, so I had to decide whether to cut funny jokes or material that’s meaningful. That kind of decision was new to me, and what’s really annoying is that the one person I would have asked for advice on that is the guy the show’s about. It’s like when you get dumped by someone and you’re heartbroken. The one person you’d usually want to talk to about it is the very person who dumped you.
“I’ve spoken to people who worked with Paul, who was a comedy director, and they’ve said that his thing was, ‘you can be as emotional as you like and as serious as you like, but there has to be a joke’. So the idea of saying something purely for the emotional gut punch was off the table.”
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Hide AdSo will audiences get emotional?
Ed said: “The show does elicit a very pure emotional response in the audience. There’s something about the fact that when somebody dies, everyone else carries on like nothing’s happened. Because nothing has happened to them. So there’s an anger in grief, too… how can everyone else carry on as though nothing has happened?”
Has it been difficult using bereavement for comedic effect?
Ed answered: “Death is universal. We will all lose someone. So the best thing to do is laugh at it. Although I was aware, when I was first writing and performing this new show, that there was a danger I might, you know, lose it onstage. I did a work-in-progress at the Museum of Comedy and there was an audible crack in my voice. On the third performance I did actually cry on stage, and I’m sure for anyone who was there [assumes a theatrical voice] ‘it was a very powerful experience’. But I don’t want it to be the sort of thing where I rip my heart out and stamp on it for the audience’s delectation. I’ve been able to throttle back my emotions and keep them in check.”
Will there be any multimedia elements included in the show?
Ed said: “There are WhatsApp messages from Paul that I wanted to share and I could have just read them out. But that wouldn’t have the same resonance, and you have to see them to fully appreciate the context. Then there’s a video of a weird guy who produces celebrity obituaries…to be honest, I’m still tinkering with the audio/visual aspect, so there may well be more of that in the show. It’s a supplementary element, though, it’s not integral. I don’t want anyone to worry unduly about the introduction of technology to the proceedings.”
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Hide AdAny final thoughts on the show to share?
Ed said: “Is it OK to talk about this stuff? I’d say this. Every night hundreds of people who didn’t know who Paul Byrne was will leave the theatre knowing who Paul Byrne was. I’m happy with that, and I think I give a good account of him onstage. I wouldn’t say he’s up there with me every night, but he’s there every time I think about the show, and I’ve got to make sure I do right by him. I briefly entertained a notion of writing a one-man play, with me sitting and talking to him towards the end of his life. But you know, I’m a stand-up comic. It’s what I do. I said to the audience in one of the early previews, ‘yes, it is sad. But don’t worry because the show is funny. Because believe it or not, I’m actually quite good at this.’”
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