Viva Brighton October 2015 Issue #32

ighton comedy festival
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Ed Byrne
“I won’t take my foot off the gas”
There seems to be a nice story-arc in Ed Byrne’s
career. There’s the early hype, as a young-andpromising
Perrier-nominated act. Then the slump,
in which he struggles to write new material, stars
in Carphone Warehouse ads and unsuccessful
sitcoms, and does a too-long tour around largebut-part-empty
venues, somewhat distracted by
frequent rows with his girlfriend between gigs.
Then the recovery and continued rise, beginning
around 2006 with an acclaimed new stand-up set
and a regular guest spot on Mock the Week.
But a key part of the story – his misery during the
slump – is missing. He’d gone into comedy with no
particular sense of urgency, and no greater ambitions
than to “make a living out of it, out of making
people laugh”. Always very much a “go with the
flow” type person, he only really realised he’d had
a difficult spell once it was over. And anyway, he
says, “things weren’t going that badly.
“At the time I thought that things were okay. I
just thought ‘the next thing will come along’.
And it’s only after, I guess, some distance was put
between me and then, that I look back and go ‘oh
shit, things did really take a dive around that time,
didn’t they?’”
Byrne admits to having “taken my foot off the gas”
around 2000. He’d been doing an Edinburgh show
every year, but “kind of burnt out and then didn’t
do it at all… I sort of ran out of things to talk
about as well.
“At the time, maybe there should have been a
bit more introspection and worry and stress, and
perhaps I’d have done something about it a bit
quicker. Maybe having the cushion of a lucrative
advertising contract made me less likely to do so.”
But doing a play at Edinburgh in 2003 made him
“want to get back on the horse a bit more.” He
Photo by Roslyn Gaunt
brought a new show to the festival the following
year, which he now calls “alright, but only alright. I
did a better one in 2006 and a better one in 2008.”
Also, in 2006, he gave the best-man’s speech at
Dara Ó Briain’s wedding, telling a story “about
the time he brought the police to my house by accident,
by trying to flag down a police car, thinking
it was a taxi, outside my front door.” A producer
from Mock the Week heard it and invited Byrne to
come on the show and tell the story, which led to a
regular guest spot.
“I was quite pleased,” he says of his re-emergence.
“And determined to maintain it a bit better this
time, and make wiser choices as regards TV.
Although you could say that this time around my
success is purely on merit, it’s not based on that
fresh-new-comedian smell anymore. So I feel like
this is a more sustainable period. And I won’t take
my foot off the gas this time.” Steve Ramsey
Ed Byrne appears at the Brighton Comedy Festival,
Dome Corn Exchange, Fri 16 Oct, 7.30pm. Also at
The Old Market, Tue Nov 24, 8pm
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