Comedian Ed Byrne brings stand up show to Limerick theatre

IRISH comedian Ed Byrne is bringing his latest comedy special, Tragedy Plus Time, to Limerick this weekend.

A staple of popular panel show Mock the Week, Ed Byrne has also sledded down the side of a volcano for Dara and Ed’s Great Big Adventure, sat alongside Martin Sheen and Robert Downey Jr on The Graham Norton Show, and demonstrated his driving skills on Top Gear and The World’s Most Dangerous Road. 

The Dublin-born comedian has also proven himself to be “quiz show dynamite” on the likes of The Chase: Celebrity Special, The Hit List, Pointless Celebrities and All-Star Family Fortunes. 

Despite largely being known for his work in the world of television light entertainment, Ed remains at heart a stand-up comedian. 

He has “honed his craft” for 30 years now, garnering a hatful of awards and a “constant, borderline bewildering stream” of five-star reviews along the way. 

As he takes his 14th show, the ‘Best Reviewed Stand Up Show at Edinburgh 2023’, on a tour of the UK and Ireland, audiences need to ready themselves, because Ed is heading into highly emotional new territory.

“It’s something of a departure,” Ed admitted. “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.” 

READ MORE: Ireland’s largest Christmas parade is coming to Bunratty

“Frankly, just being funny is a furrow I’ve been happy to occupy. But this new show features some heart-wrenching, soul-bearing stuff,” he continued.

For Tragedy Plus Time, Ed ventures into the world of grief and loss, a decision prompted by the passing of his younger brother Paul, aged just 44, in February 2022. 

“I was in two minds about whether to do a show of this nature,” Ed explained. “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?”

“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.”

“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’,” he laughed.

“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 on stage. 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.”

Ed will be making his latest stop on the tour at the Lime Tree Theatre this Saturday, November 16 at 8pm.

Tickets for the event, presented by Dolans, are available on limetreebelltable.ie.