Photo by Idil Sukan - comedian Ed Byrne

Comedian Ed Byrne will be at the Crewe Lyceum Theatre with his new show on June 16, writes Courtney Davies.

Byrne will be bringing his wit, charm and story-telling to South Cheshire as he tours with his “If I’m Honest” show.

He did a few socially distanced gigs as well as some on Zoom during the Coronavirus pandemic.

But he rose to fame with his on-stage success over the last 25 years, including notable TV appearances on Mock The Week, The Graham Norton Show, Top Gear and The World’s Most Dangerous Roads.

The award-winning comedian’s new show delves into a father’s sense of responsibility, what it means to be a man in 2019, and whether he possesses any qualities whatsoever worth passing on to his two sons.

Gender politics is something he readily engages with – deploying his customary comedic zeal.

“I’ll admit that there are things where men get a raw deal,” he says.

“We have higher suicide rates, and we tend not to do well in divorces, but representation in action movies is not something we have an issue with.

“It was Mad Max: Fury Road that kicked it all off, even though nobody complained about Ripley in Alien or Sarah Connor in Terminator 2.

“Of course, social media means this stuff gets broadcast far and wide in an instant, which emboldens people.

“The problem with men’s rights activists is that it’s not about speaking up for men’s rights, it’s about hating women.

“If you’re a men’s rights activist, you’re not going to care about the fact that there’s an all-female Ghostbusters remake. That’s nothing to do with men’s rights or female entitlement.

“That’s everything to do with being, well, a whiny baby.”

As ever, Byrne manages to provoke without being overly polemical, a balancing act that only someone of his experience can pull off.

“I did stuff about Trump and the Pizzagate right wing conspiracy,” he says.

“And a couple of the reviewers said, ‘Oh, I would have liked to have watched a whole show of this’. And I think, ‘well you might have, but the average person who comes to see me would not like to see that’.

“I like to make a point or get something off my chest, or perhaps I’m talking about something that’s been on my mind, but the majority of stuff is just to get laughs.

“People who come to see me are not political activists necessarily, they’re regular folk.

“If you can make a point to them, in between talking about your struggles with aging, or discussing your hernia operation or whatever it is, you can toss in something that does give people pause as regards to how men should share the household chores.”

The new show also takes his natural tendency towards self-deprecation to unexpected extremes.

“I do genuinely annoy myself,” Ed concedes.

“But the thing of your children being a reflection of you, gives you an opportunity to build something out of the best of yourself only for you to then see flashes of the worst of yourself in them.

“It’s a wake-up call about your own behaviour.”

If I’m Honest elucidates the frustration that arrives in middle age – and lives up to its title.

“I’m bored looking for things, I’m bored of trying to find stuff, because I can never find it, and it is entirely my fault,” Ed says.

“Nobody’s hiding my stuff from me. Although my wife did actually move my passport on one occasion.”

He insists that, while the show might have mordant and occasionally morbid aspects, it’s also not without its quietly triumphant moments.

“I thought I was being quite upbeat talking about the small victories,” he says.

“You know, finding positivity in being able to spot when a cramp was about to happen in your leg and dealing with it before it does. I was very happy with myself about that.”

Age, it seems, has not withered him. Especially now that he’s figured out how to head off ailments before they become a problem.

“You see comics who are my age and older but are still retaining a level of “cool” and drawing a young crowd.

“I can’t deny that I’m quite envious of that. But there’s also something very satisfying about your audience growing old with you.”

Tickets for Ed Byrne are available at https://crewelyceum.co.uk/online/tickets-ed-byrne-crewe-2021

(Image by Idil Sukan)

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