It s called In Bits And Pieces but In Fits And Stitches would be a more accurate sobriquet for Jason Byrne s new comedy show which is, as we say in the biz, very, very funny. In what will be his first ever Irish tour, the twentysomething comedian will be acting the maggot in 9 separate towns, from Waterford to Donegal, including a headline gig at the Murphy s Ungagged Comedy Festival in Kinsale, the weekend after next.
He s quite mad, is our Jason. But then, he reckons, so are his audience. They re all fuckin nuts! I ve never seen such a bunch of mad people in my life, says Jason. Mr. Pot meet Mr. Kettle, I don t believe you ve been introduced.
Of course, it s all his own doing. At ten-to-nine, your proverbial punter is subconsciously fretting about their car insurance, rent money, and whether or not their girlfriend still loves them as much as she did last summer. By ten past nine, the self-same punter is doubled up with laughter at the sheer unabashed lunacy, wanton idiocy and wilful childishness of Jason and his amazing technicolour comedy coat (stitched together with the lining of, amongst others, Spike Milligan. Kenny Everett and Tommy Cooper, he admits), his innermost anxieties, for the time being, a distant mirage.
What I try and do when I start off a set, says Jason, is try and put everyone at ease by just chatting to people, and then I try and turn the room into a bunch of 8-year-olds. Then I can take off. It s as if their brains have just been adapted for that hour. I pity them when they leave that room and try and carry on their lives in a normal way! They probably get into bed with their wives and start hitting them on the nose and pulling their hair!
The current show will be comprised of the material he intends taking to the Edinburgh Festival this August. Just how does the man himself explain the ever-widening appeal of his comedy?
The humour I do is very simple, he answers. It s happy humour. It s not trying to be too philosophical; it s just me getting up and saying, right, I m gonna have loads of fun and if you want to have fun, come on! . I think that s why I ve done so well because people do have the 8-year-old in them.
Has there ever been a situation where Jason has felt depressed or where something bad is happening in his private life and he just doesn t feel like getting up on stage and amusing a bunch of strangers for an hour?
Many times, he recalls. A friend of mine s girlfriend died and I had to go on and do one of the Laughter Lounge shows. I had to do it but you just switch off, you just let your brain do the work. It ended up being a great show. It s the same if you re tired; you just end up running around, getting the adrenalin going.
Were you always this mad growing up?
Yeah. My mam only told me this week that when I was on holiday in the Isle Of Man, my dad had to bring me to the doctor because I was so hyperactive. They thought I had swallowed something by accident. But there was nothing wrong with me. The doctor said to my parents, you ve just taken him away from his mates and he s just making his own amusement . I was running around the hotel breakfast room with a table cloth on my head, going nuts.
Quite. So was Jason the class clown while growing up?
In school I studied up to my Inter Cert and I got great results and then I discovered messin in 5th Year. And I started to mess and then I just had a fuckin ball. So I used to entertain everybody in class all the time. I used to go into a class with a big huge cross around my neck and I knew my teacher couldn t tell me to take it off because she was a nun. That was the thing: I used to bully the teachers.
Of course, none of this will stop them from naming Jason Past Pupil Of The Year should his television work meet with the desired response. A new sitcom, entitled Dark Ages, is set for transmission by Granada in December and Jason has a sizable role. He will also feature on the BBC NI comedy extravaganza, the Empire Laughs Back, and he has plans to adapt his previous Camping On The Moon show for TV.
But if he hadn t found comedy, what might Jason have done? Curled clown s hair. Or maybe I d have been an air hostess. n
Jason Byrne headlines the Murphy s Ungagged Comedy Festival in Kinsale, Co. Cork from Thursday 8th-Sun 11th July along with Dylan Moran and Kevin McAleer. His nationwide tour, In Bits And Pieces, takes in Galway, Cuba, Wed 14th July; Cork, Half Moon Club, Thurs 15th; Tralee, Horan s, Fri 16th; University of Limerick, Sat 17th; Sligo, Hawk s Well Theatre, Sun 18th; Donegal, Letterkenny, The Orchard, Tues 20th; Waterford, The Forum, Fri 23rd; Dublin, Vicar St., Sat 24th.