Byrne after reading

This month sees Ed Byrne make a welcome return to Dublin with his latest show, Different Class. As the title suggests, the class system is one of the subjects that has been inspiring the comedian of late.

“The first 10 ten minutes of the show is about that topic,” explains Ed. “And having that in-between thing, of not being posh and not being poor. I think it’s a particularly prevalent feeling in Ireland, in that we don’t have the upper class thing that they do in Britain. We only really have the two classes, and so it’s quite hard to decide whether someone’s posh or not.
“You know yourself, there’s always that thing of people not wanting to sound too posh, because then you sound English. So that’s a running theme through the show, of not feeling assuredly working class or assuredly middle class.”
The great thing about being lower middle class is that you get to hate everyone.
“Yeah, and I pretty much do,” chuckles Ed. “It’s a wonderful excuse for misanthropy. I’m kind of jealous as well though. I found when I was growing up that you had people who were just assuredly working class, and seemed very comfortable in their skin. You had the lads in their tracksuits and earrings, and they’re as working class as you like. And just happy; that’s what they are. Then there guys at the other end, talking about, like (adopts posh accent), ‘Where am I going to buy my ski-wear?’
“There’s a lack of awareness that anyone else would dislike them or anything like that. I remember when my sister went to Trinity College, she came home after the first week talking like she was from Castleknock. We beat that out of her! (Laughs) But what I’m talking about in the show is never feeling like you properly fit in at either end of the scale. And being accused by each end of being the other. I grew up in Swords, and there were a lot of fairly rough council estates.
“You’d talk to someone from one of them and they’d go, ‘Oh, are you from Broad Meadow?’ As in, somewhere you could buy a house. And it’d be, ‘You fuckin’ posh prick.’ Then you’d be delivering the milk to an estate that was really posh, and you’d get looked at like you were the sole of someone’s shoe.”
Moving on to other topics, Ed got married a while back, and one wonders if this development has mellowed him on the subject of relationships.
“I remember I did a tour called Me Again,” reflects Ed. “I had just come out of a really awful relationship, and I was using the stage as a very powerful catharsis. In general, that show was reviewed fairly badly, and people considered me a misogynist. But it was weird, because I’d always done stuff about men and women, and I’d done stuff that would gently slag off women in general. And gently slag off men too. Then I do one show where I particularly slag off one woman, and I’m accused of being a misogynist. It would be more misogynist to poke gentle fun at all women than to have a pop at a particular person.
“It was one of those things where, when I was going out with her, I couldn’t do any jokes about her, because it would be something else she’d fucking whinge about (laughs). So once you’re out of it and you have some distance, you look at it more objectively and go, ‘Jesus, that was a really destructive, toxic relationship.’ I did stuff about it, but I find it attractive watching a comedian be a bit more visceral, and telling you something that’s obviously true.
“Some people did find it attractive, but it was a bit too much for others. This show is far more mellow, and there’s nothing where I actually have a pop at my wife. I have a pop at wedding plans, and the logistics of getting married. That’s yielded a good 20 minutes of material.”
When I ask Ed about his recent television work, he mentions that he is appearing on an upcoming episode of Graham Norton’s chat show. It turns out that he’s known Norton since his days on the stand-up circuit.
“When he was on the circuit, he was an excellent host and MC,” recalls Ed. “He was always very good at talking to the audience. I’ll admit, I thought his actual material was only okay, but his ability to talk directly to people in the crowd, that’s a string that in my bow is slightly lacking. I’ll do it a bit, but you watch someone like Graham Norton do it, or Dara O Briain or Ross Noble, and they just have it down.
“That whole thing of asking people, ‘Where do you come from?’, I feel a bit without a net doing that kind of stuff. I also find it very hard to get humour out of somebody without making them look like a dick. I feel bad making somebody look like a dick when all they’ve done is pay money to come and see me.”
Ed has previously performed a number of times on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Does he expect to appear on The Tonight Show, now that O’Brien is set to take over from Jay Leno?
“I don’t know,” replies Ed. “We were just hanging out with him last year; they had a reception for him at the US Ambassador’s residence in Dublin. There were a group of Irish comedians in attendance, and he invited any of us to come and do the show. But particularly before they moved to prime-time – I think they’re a bit more choosy on The Tonight Show.
“But he’s been kind of hamstrung, because Leno has just moved an hour earlier as well. The idea was that Conan would take over and Leno would retire, but now Leno has decided not to retire. Even though it’s still technically The Tonight Show, Leno will still have the bigger guests.”
Finally, the fact that Ed has borrowed the title Different Class from the Pulp album of the same name is obvious, due to the promotional poster borrowing the layout and font from the record. Did he ever see Pulp play live?
“No, I never did,” responds Ed. “And personally I prefer Shatner’s version of ‘Common People’. I know I’m in the minority on that!”