Review: Ed Byrne, If I’m Honest (rating 5/5)
Becoming a parent often ruins comedians. There’s a moment in so many of their careers where they do a show based around the joys of parenthood and immediately lose half their audience, because they’ve forgotten the ironic truth that happiness is invariably the antithesis of great comedy.
Ed Byrne has been skilfully dodging this bullet ever since he became a father and continues to do so in his new show.
Very early on in he reveals the blunt truth that his children irritate him and in fact are probably the most irritating people he knows. The reason they irritate him, however, isn’t just because of what they do, it’s because they are the mirror image of him, taking on all of his worst traits and leading him to wonder exactly what qualities he has got that he would like to pass on to them.
He concludes that there are far too few to fill an hour and that there is far more he would want them to avoid inheriting.
From this, he builds a routine based around his own faults that weaves in a wider narrative including Superman movies and the bizarre claims about the super hero made in the 1950s TV series that no one has ever actually seen, sitting on the right hand side of planes so that he can be reminded he lives on a flight path in a house he’ll never be able to sell, and the endless temptation to sabotage his career by saying something inappropriate on The One Show or social media.
There are no wrong moves as he takes the audience with him through a combination of superb timing, great material and observations that everyone can connect with, whether or not they’re parents and whether or not they’re being honest about how irritating their children can be.
A masterclass from one of the finest comedians on the circuit.
Assembly Rooms, 1 to 26 August (not 12)
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