I’d always prefer tears of laughter
Comic’s Fringe show inspired by grief
Comedian Jason Byrne has revealed he had to have heart surgery after performing at the Edinburgh Festival.
The former TV talent show judge, who had just lost his dad, ended up on the operating table to clear three blocked arteries.
Jason, the biggest-selling comedian at the Fringe, said his new stand-up show in the capital called Unblocked – which will run at the Underbelly, McEwan Hall, from August 3-28 – is inspired by the grief and bad luck he’s endured.
Dubliner Jason, 50, said: “In these last couple of years, I’ve had my dad passing away, Covid taking all my jobs and then heart surgery as well. “Irish people definitely always like to find the humour in sadness – in total miser y. My li fe has been so nuts recently that I just got to the point where I decided there was nothing else I could do but laugh about it. If I wasn’t laughing about it, I might as wel l have given up.
“The whole t h i n g wa s c on f u s i n g because I felt so healthy. Two or three times a week I had been
Jenny Morrison on Facebook Live doing exercises with all my punters – Joe Wicks style. My diet was fine. My weight was fine. Then one day I was running on a beach and I felt this pain in my chest.
“After going for an angiogram, I was told, ‘ You’ve got three blocked arteries.’ They told me they weren’t fully blocked – if they had been, I’d be dead.
“But they were 70 and 90 per cent blocked, so I had to have heart surgery and get five stents put in to open the arteries up.
“When I’d first felt the pain, I hadn’t panicked. I was sure whatever it was could be fixed.
“It wasn’t until they told me my arteries were blocked that I got upset – right there and then.”
Jason was told the blockages were down to him having high cholesterol, caused not by an unhealthy lifestyle but simple genetics.
He said: “My doctors were so good.
They just talk to you about what they are going to do like it’s changing a tyre. Now I’m on old-man pills for the rest of my life. They’ll do scans every six months and I’ve just to watch myself. One of the things I’ve got to do is keep exercising.
“If you don’t use your heart when you’ve got heart disease, then it gets really bad, really quickly, so I have to keep running, cycling and exercising.
“It was a relief to hear as one of the first things I asked when I was told was whether I’d be able to keep doing my shows – as they are quite a workout in themselves.
“My doctor said I could go back to work but not to go crazy on stage every night. So I’ve had to work out a show where I can do it at a certain pace.”
Jason, who for two years had his own award-winning comedy series on Radio Two, had his surgery just a year-and-a-half after losing his dad Paddy, 80, to a stroke.
His new one-man play, The Paddy Lama – Shed Talks, which also runs at Underbelly from August 8-28, sees him take on the role of his father in this tribute to his dad.
He said: “I want people to know who my dad was and also to encourage people to talk about their loved ones when they are gone.
“My dad used to say, ‘ If you don’t continue to talk about someone when they die, they die twice’.”
Jason said his dad was a deeply funny man, who would have loved having a show written about him.
He added: “He had such a great outlook on life and I want to share that with other people.”