Ed Byrne Photo: Supplied
The death of a sibling might seem like unpromising material for a comedy show, but Ed Byrne is getting some of the best reviews of his career for his Tragedy Plus Time show.
Byrne is bringing the show to Aotearoa this winter for an 18-date tour.
His shows always reflect what's been happening in his life, he tells RNZ's Jim Mora.
Ed Byrne: The comedy show inspired by the death of his brother
"And the big thing that's happened in my life in the last couple of years is I lost my little brother, which obviously, doesn't sound like something that's ripe for comic riffing. But it's actually yielded, apparently, the best show I've ever done," Byrne said.
His brother, a reformed drinker, relapsed during lockdown in the UK and then caught Covid, Byrne said.
The show also talks about the falling out they had, Byrne said, although the two subsequently reconciled.
His brother, also in the comedy business, got one last gag in at his funeral, Byrne said.
"He was cremated, and when he rolled into the furnace, at his insistence, we played Disco Inferno by The Trammps, the chorus of which is 'Burn Baby Burn', which would be funny for anyone to do. But bearing in mind, our surname is Byrne, and he was the youngest in the family. There you go. He was a comedy director, and he was determined to get the last laugh."
He embarked on the show with some trepidation, he said.
"I'm not gonna lie. When I was first doing the show, doing previews of it, works in progress, before we got to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, I did slightly feel like I made may have made a mistake in putting myself through this every night. But then very quickly, I began to enjoy it more and more.
"And particularly just the idea that every night hundreds of people were coming to the show, who didn't know who Paul Byrne was, and they leave knowing who Paul Byrne was."
His brother would have enjoyed the show, he said.
"I certainly like to think so. And there's even a bit in the show where I do talk about the argument we had, where we fell out that caused us not to speak for about a year. And at the time, when we had that argument, I was convinced he was 100 percent in the wrong, and I had done nothing.
"And then the more I examined it, the more I analysed it, the more I realised my role in that argument and how bad it was. And I definitely think my retelling of that story, which is so much fairer to him now, and makes so much fun of me, every time I do it I think this is the bit of the show he would absolutely love."
A show 'full of digressions'
The show is not just about Paul however, Byrne said.
"It's full of digressions, where I talk about things like the pandemic, I also talked about light-hearted things like my resentment of James Corden's fame, where I talk about the attraction of conspiracy theories.
"Every time I do a show whatever the theme is, they'll always be sort of jumping off points where there'll be digressions. And I think, with this show, what it illustrates nicely, is actually the nature of grief, in that you can be sad, but you can then forget about it for a bit and just talk about it and be frivolous. But then it's always kind of waiting for you. You always have to come back to it."
Byrne has been performing in New Zealand since the late '90s and has a loyal audience here.
"I swear to God, I play New Zealand more than I play Ireland. I haven't done Dublin in years. I'll be doing Dublin on this tour, but I haven't done a tour date in Dublin for years.
"Whereas I'll go to New Zealand with every tour, and it's the same size population, and I'll sell five times as many tickets in New Zealand as I do in Ireland. That's just one of those things."
He also hoped to get some "hills under his boots" while here.
"I don't rope up. I'm not like helmets and sheer faces, I don't have the head for heights for that. No, I just like a hill walk. I like a hike. A bit of a scramble, a bit of hand-over-hand, bit of climbing but I don't do the serious stuff - too dangerous."