INTERVIEW: Comedian Ed Byrne coming to Brighton

His show was the biggest and fastest selling ticket at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2008, and was followed by a five-week residency at the Riverside Studios and a sell-out autumn tour.

Now Ed is appearing at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, on Monday, February 9, with his smash hit show Different Class.

The recently-married comedian talks about his rapport with the audience and how his personal life becomes part of his act.

Make it personal

"The best comedy comes from a personal angle," declares 36-year-old Ed, who has shone on such TV shows as Have I Got News For You, Mock the Week, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and 8 out of 10 Cats.

"Sometimes you hear a comedian on stage saying, 'I'm single,' and you think, 'no, you're not, you're married with kids!'

"I think it makes a great difference if as a comic you can take your own life and tell the truth about it.

"If it's real, it makes it so much better.

"It gives it much more authenticity and has far greater punch."

Getting to know you

The Irishman, who since last summer has been very happily married, continues: "You could be accused of self-indulgence, but my experience has been that audiences really like it when you reveal something of yourself on stage.

"It's not funny unless they believe it.

"For instance, one section of Different Class that goes down very well is where I talk about my status.

"I discuss the difficulty of neither being massively famous nor totally obscure and how strange it is simply to be known as 'that bloke'.

"The audience really enjoy the feeling of getting to know me better."

Sell-out show

One of the many outstanding sections of Different Class, which completely sold out during its month-long run at this year's Edinburgh Festival, concerns Ed's recent wedding.

He extracts loads of laughs from highlighting the numerous rip-offs in the wedding industry.

He also wants to congratulate the man who invented the tradition that the groom should never see his bride's dress before The Big Day: "I want to shake his hand for getting us out of that particular shopping expedition.

"'Honey, nothing would give me greater pleasure than watching you try on infinity wedding dresses!'"

Ed reflects that in this part of the show: "I'm not slagging off my wife, I'm slagging off the wedding industry.

"Everyone can relate to the minor frustrations that any wedding involves, such as arguing about stuff that you don't really care about!"

What's posh and not

In this show, the comic also proffers some very strong material on that perennial obsession '“ the class system.

Ed comes up with some great lines about it.

"Pheasant is posh," he muses at one point, "even if you eat it with Alphabetti Spaghetti!"

The stand-up observes: "We're all fascinated by the subject of class, and there's a lot of comic mileage in it.

"It's a leitmotif that runs through the show.

"The funny thing is, when I've been asking the audience here at the Riverside, 'who would call themselves middle class?', only one brave soul usually puts his hand up.

"I can't believe that in an affluent West London there is only one middle-class person!"

Great acclaim

Ed is delighted that Different Class is quite rightly receiving so much acclaim.

He tries to appraise quite why it has chimed with audiences to such a degree.

"I've been reliably informed that this is my best show yet," he smiles.

"It's partly down to experience.

"More than anything, though, as mushy as it sounds, it's down to the love of a good woman.

"That really helps my comedy because it means I'm freer to focus on it.

"In 2004, a lot of my show was centred on my bitterness about a previous girlfriend.

"It was cathartic, but at the same time it wasn't very fair, as she wasn't there to stand up for herself.

"That style didn't suit me. I think what I'm doing now suits me much better."

Warming audience

The stand-up added, "I'm now leading a life that lends itself much better to comedy.

"I'm doing lovely things like getting married and reporting on that and audiences seem to warm to it."

Never more than a minute or two away from the next joke, Ed concludes with a mischievous grin: "Of course, if my wife ever left me, I'd end up doing the divorce show, and it's quite possible that that wouldn't go down very well at all!

"People prefer me when I'm happy."

Tickets

Ed Byrne is at Brighton's Theatre Royal, on Monday, February 9.

Tickets are available from the box office on 08700 606 650 or online at www.theambassadors.com/theatreroyal

Ed Byrne was speaking with James Rampton after his recent residency at the Riverside Studios.

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