Ed Byrne is not being arrogant by calling his 2011 tour Crowd Pleaser. “In theory, I’m reclaiming the phrase as it now has a negative connotation, because live comedy has become such a big thing and criticism has become its own entity,” says the Irish comedian, who has not one, but two nights to please the crowd at the Grand Opera House, York, in the week ahead.
“Calling someone a ‘crowd pleaser’ is a way of doing down someone that audiences like. I don’t think it’s so much jealousy as sometimes critics don’t trust a comedian that makes the entire audience laugh.
“A lot of the reviews for this new show are saying, ‘I like the stuff about being a nerd but not the stuff about the cat and having a kid’, but the laughs for the nerd material are only coming from pockets of the audience, whereas everyone is laughing at the second half.”
How do the two halves differ, Ed?
“In the first half I talk about the Conservatives, immigration, Professor Brian Cox, as well as being a nerd, and it’s all very clever, but then when I talk about cats, cake and becoming a dad in the second half, the critics say it’s all a bit safe.”
Do they have a point?
“I always have played to a broad church, doing stuff that is broad and crowd-pleasing but also what I like to think is clever – saying something different about the familiar subjects,” Ed says.
Unpredictability is all part of a night’s work on stage for Byrne.
“Sometimes you will find yourself milking a joke that you will think is really clever, but the observation that you set up will get the laugh, not the punchline,” says Ed.
“I sometimes watch comedians doing observational humour and I’ll think, ‘I get what you’re talking about but where’s the joke, the punchline?’, otherwise it’s just an observation, not observational comedy.”
Crowd Pleaser is Ed Byrne’s broadest show to date.
“Out of all the shows I’ve done, this one has everything but the kitchen sink, so there’s something for everyone, but it won’t please everyone all the time,” he says.
“You get different reactions every night and that’s maybe not to do with the city you’re in but what night it is. I would say that midweek, the first part of the show works better, but come the weekend, the second half goes down better.
“I don’t why, though usually the second half works better, but generally the midweek audiences know more about their comedy; the weekend audience is just coming out to have a good time.”
Running through Crowd Pleaser, as it did through Ed’s last show Different Class, is his inexorable progress towards grumpy old manhood at 39.
“There wasn’t a theme in particular to this show. It really was that I wanted to talk about different things, and whatever was annoying me, I wanted to write about and make it funny,” he says.
“Sometimes I just need to find different ways to write about things that irk me or annoy me, and this definitely seems to be a show about things that annoy me.”
He is still learning after all his years of writing and performing.
“I wrote this show in the autumn and went out to the Highlands and islands to play village halls to try it out , which was brilliant,” says Ed.
“Essentially, I learned what does and doesn’t work, but I also learned never to underestimate rural audiences. The further you go into the islands, the more you think they may react to jokes about abortion, but actually nothing got an adverse reaction.”
• Ed Byrne, Crowd Pleaser, Grand Opera House, York, Wednesday and Thursday, 7.30pm, supported by Karl Spain. Tickets: £21 on 0844 871 3024 or grandoperahouseyork.org.uk
• See Monday’s Press for a two-for-one ticket offer for Ed Byrne’s May 11 show
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