The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Byrne: ‘Grief is a dour subject, but it is funny’
Irish stand-up Ed Byrne has developed strong ties with Scotland going back over three decades. The panel show regular first made a name for himself on Glasgow’s comedy scene while he was still a student at Strathclyde University in the early 1990s.
He later developed a passion for hillwalking – in particular, Munro bagging – and, fittingly, just weeks ago he presented the sizeable charity donation he won on a recent celebrity edition of TV quiz The Weakest Link to Scottish Mountain Rescue.
Preventing tragedies – in their case, on high peaks – is the primary concern of that particular organisation, and it’s an ethos that has hit home to the observational comedian in the starkest of terms in the past couple of years.
His own catastrophic event didn’t occur on the hills, however. Rather it was the death due to liver damage of his younger brother Paul in 2022.
It’s why his latest show is called Tragedy Plus Time – a nod to a famous appraisal of the very nature of comedy itself believed to have been originally
proffered by American humorist Mark Twain.
“Something that’s not funny at the time can become funny later,” Ed explains.
“I’m just seeing how far I can stretch that as a concept.”
Paul, who was 44, directed comedy shows and was also known for his quick-wittedness.
“He had always liked a drink, but had managed to get clean – but then when lockdown came, he fell back into old habits,” adds Byrne, 51.
“He was so unlucky in so many ways, as he caught Covid – he was drinking
and his life spiralled out of control. Lockdown wasn’t the easiest time to find an organ donor, and time wasn’t on his side.
“I do think he would want me to turn his death into a one-person touring comedy show, and that’s what I’ve done, but it was more difficult than anything I’ve done before.
“I had to balance being funny with telling what’s quite a sad story.”
Using comedy to tap into the universal human concern with death is hardly a case of breaking the mould, but it’s a move that demands creative courage.
“I was in two minds,” admits the former Mock The Week regular.
“When I decided this was the subject I was going to tackle 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?”
The father of two says his personal trauma could only be turned into a laughterfilled live proposition by opting for a non-linear structure and littering it with jokes.
For him, injecting the downright preposterous into the poignant serves to
mirror the unpredictable nature of grief itself.
“It’s a very dour subject, but it is funny,” Byrne adds.
“I was talking to a lot of the clients that Paul directed and they said his thing was you can be as serious as you want but there always has to be a joke. Just being serious is no use – so I made sure to honour that.
“There’s nothing new in doing something sad and then having a punchline.
“It’s surprising the quality of a laugh you get when you deliver a joke after sad news.
“You’re creating a more emotional image or moment in the show and then puncturing that with a laugh.
“You watch TV shows like Scrubs, M*A*S*H or even Friends, where they create a sad moment followed by a laugh.
“I’m not exactly re-inventing the wheel here, but after 30 years in the job it’s nice to be still finding new things.
“I still feel I’m getting better – the last tour I did was the funniest show I’ve done.
“I think this show is the best I’ve done.”
Understandably, Tragedy Plus Time – the 14th show of his career – has proved something of an emotional rollercoaster for Ed, and he reveals he was reduced to tears on stage during his first few performances last year.
While the theme of grief inevitably runs through the show, anger is also a major element – with relief provided at points as the material covers other topics such as Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and James Corden.
“I am like an angry Nigel Farage at Glastonbury,” says Byrne.
“I am angry with the GP receptionist, angry about the man that gave my brother Covid, angry at the chain of events that then occurred.
“I digress at times, otherwise it could be a bit relentless, but I wanted to create a show where people come away saying: ‘I laughed, I cried and then I laughed again.’”
In taking such a bold step, catharsis was undoubtedly a big motivation, and the comic believes he’s done his brother’s memory justice.
“Every night hundreds of people leave the theatre knowing who Paul Byrne was,” he declares.
“I wouldn’t say he’s up there with me every night, but he’s there every time I think about the show. 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 – believe it or not, I’m actually quite good at this.’”