IRISH comedian Ed Byrne began re-evaluating his life in the wake of his landmark 40th birthday.

It led to his latest show, Roaring Forties, whose Spring 2014 tour will visit the Scarborough Spa Grand Hall on February 12, Harrogate Royal Hall two nights later and Hull City Hall on March 15.

“It’s about getting older, about being at an age where you’re not really that old but no one thinks you’re trendy anymore,” says regular Mock The Week participant Ed, introducing his latest observational material.

The notorious miserablist assures you he has embraced middle age, but on hitting 40, he has concluded that on the whole people annoy him.

“It’s like a spring-clean of my life, and I’ve come up with reasons why you can’t be my friend. There are seven billion people on the planet and I only have the time to be friends with ten of them and so I have to choose carefully.”

Fatherhood, friendships, vasectomies and driving-awareness courses all feature in a show built around Byrne’s trademark one-liners and extended anecdotes. Above all, however, life’s irritations are on his mind.

“It’s the little things that annoy me,” he says. “People who don’t indicate on roundabouts; people who use the phrases, ‘Touched a nerve there’, or ‘I’m just making conversation’.”

Wife Claire and his two young sons often appear in his material, but does she ever object? “It’s something that most comics experience. People know what you do for a living and then they complain when you mention them in the act, and I’ve certainly had at least one girlfriend in the past who objected,” he says.

“But my wife and my family are really funny and Claire understands what goes with the job. Actually she comes off very well and people say our relationship – very sparky, very joshing – comes across. I can’t think of a time when she’s said ‘you can’t use this’, but if she did, I’d not use it.

“As for the kids, any stuff I do about them I seriously doubt in years to come they’ll hate me for and make me pay for their therapy. Although I’m aware there’s an age at which you have to be sensitive to their wishes and not embarrass them, but that’s some years off.”

Ed, who grew up in Swords in Dublin, began his comedy career in Glasgow 20 years ago when studying horticulture at the University of Strathclyde.

“One thing that has changed since then is that I now don’t pretend to think something for the sake of a joke. I mean there’s always comic exaggeration and embroidering a story to make it funnier, but it’s more true to my life now,” he says.

“I used to say I hated kids, for example, and it wasn’t true – I’ve always loved kids and wanted to have them, but that wouldn’t have fitted with the style of comic I was earlier in my career.

“I think being truthful makes it more chancy, but if I take an opinion and try to find a way to make it funny – even if people don’t agree with me – I think it pays off because audiences know what’s authentic.”

Fortified at clocking 40, Ed Bryne is on the growling prowl. “I’m in my forties. Hear me roar,” he forewarns.

• Box office: Scarborough, 01723 821888 or scarboroughspa.co.uk; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Hull, 01482 300300.