Ed Byrne: ‘Russell Brand is a TV problem – not a comedy one’

Ed Byrne is touring his new show, Tragedy Plus Time – and he’s in a reflective mood (Picture: Roslyn Gaunt)

Ed Byrne has been moving audiences to belly-laugh oblivion with his observational comedy for the best part of three decades now – and he’s noticed something about his industry of late.

Rocketing to fame in the mid-1990s when he got his big break on Jonathan Ross’s Big, Big, Talent Show, Ed has gone on to appear on primetime TV panel shows including Mock The Week, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and The Graham Norton Show.

Now the Irish comic is touring his most serious show yet, after years of being a ‘bit of a lightweight, frothy comedian’ (his words, not ours). So serious, in fact, it was this year’s Edinburgh Fringe’s best-rated show, with an average of 4.6 stars across 22 write-ups. Not bad for a ‘lightweight’.

His show, Tragedy Plus Time, explores just that: the idea that comedy simply requires a tragic experience plus some time to process it. Everyone thinks Mark Twain coined this genius quote (greedy git) but it was actually TV personality Steve Allen, I’m told.

Last year, Ed’s brother Paul Byrne died of cancer aged 44, and that’s the main topic of the show. Yikes, you may think, “That doesn’t sound very funny.”

‘I was determined it wasn’t going to be a show where I just wallow in grief,’ explained Ed.

The comedian has decades of stand-up under his belt, and this is his best-rated show ever (Picture: Dawn Fletcher-Park/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

This time, Ed is digging deep for his stand-up set (Picture: Roslyn Gaunt)

‘If I had, it would have been five stars from The Guardian. I only got four. There’s too many jokes in it,’ he quipped.

It’s clear from this response – not to mention his raving Edinburgh reviews and illustrious career – that Ed can swim in the deep, as well as lark around on the surface of comedy style.

Being such a long-term comedy pro, and given all the headlines of late (see: Russell Brand) – has Ed ever noticed there being ‘predator’ problem on the comedy circuit?

‘Here’s what’s annoying,’ he answered. ‘When someone gets outed as a predator, and you start hearing stuff about “open secrets”, you go, “Well, nobody told me.”

‘So I make it a note to gently enquire now,’ Ed continued, explaining: ‘I’m a bit out the loop. Once you’re off the circuit and on your own it’s hard to know what’s going on.’

This comes after Katherine Ryan famously told Louis Theroux in a tell-all (within legal limits) interview about a nameless sexual predator on the comedy circuit.

Months later, allegations of sexual assault, rape and emotional abuse were made against comedian Brand in an explosive joint Channel 4 Dispatches, The Sunday Times, and The Times investigation – claims he denies.

Comic Daniel Sloss spoke out for the investigation, though many big name comedians have remained tight-lipped on the topic. But Ed’s got a thing or two to say.

Ed reckons the 48-year-old comic turned ‘wellness’ guru was allowed to get away with his alleged behaviour, not because of the sinister world of comedy – but the TV industry.

‘With Russell Brand for instance,’ he said. ‘He was on the comedy circuit for a wet day. That guy was a TV presenter. He very quickly was on the fast track to TV.

‘The stuff he allegedly got away with, he allegedly got away with because he was a TV star.

Russell Brand was recently accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional manipulation (Picture: Mike Marsland/WireImage)

‘As far as I know, if he was carrying on that way in a dressing room at a comedy club, he would have been dealt with.

‘I know he was a comedian, but to me it’s more about tolerance for this kind of behavior in the TV industry – he said, making sure he never works in TV again,’ quipped Ed.

But through Ed’s recent ‘gentle inquiries’ into the comedy world, he reckons female comedians still face some invisible barriers.

‘I’ve had a lot of chat with women on the [comedy] circuit and they said stuff I never even considered to be barriers to women in comedy,’ he said. And Ed likes to think of himself as someone who definitely considers.

‘For instance, the amount of times that I would show up to do a gig and the accommodation would turn out to be a promoter’s couch. That happened to me, like, a handful of times. It’s never great. But when you’re a bloke in his 20s it’s fine. F*** it, you know?

‘But if you’re a woman on your own in your 20s and you’re expected to sleep on some dude’s couch, that’s not okay.

‘The women I spoke to said the odds of that being the accommodation offered would increase with how good-looking the comedian was,’ he shared.

That’s not to say every single sofa offer from small venues with names like ‘the Giggleshack in Walton-upon-f***face’ (nice) are dodgy, or seedy, Ed explained. ‘They might be perfectly innocent situations. But if you’re a woman you might not want to sleep on a guy’s couch.’

Imagining women having to turn down work because of this situation, Ed explained how an agent could offer up the gig knowing the sleeping arrangements – and citing a man who said it was ‘very comfortable, actually’ – without thinking that perhaps a woman might not feel safe in this same situation.

Sometimes though, it does admittedly sound kinda’ seedy. ‘I was talking to a woman who was saying, “Yeah, it seems like every time I do a gig out of town it turned out that the accommodation was the guy’s couch”,’ explained Ed. This, compared to Ed’s ‘handful,’ is a little stark.

‘Not all these guys will be wrongins’, but it’s also like: “Would you have offered me your couch?”‘ he pointed out.

‘A girl might not f***ing want to crash there, get her a f***ing hotel,’ he concluded. Hear, hear. Ed Byrne for PM.

Ed reckons the TV industry should be answering questions, not the comedy circuit (Picture: Roslyn Gaunt)

Never mind ‘predators’ – is Ed worried about AI, and whether it could ever infiltrate the comedy industry? The question on everyone’s lips (you’re welcome).

‘I’m not even slightly worried by AI,’ Ed replied firmly. ‘I think the only time AI comedy is funny is because you’re laughing at how poor it is.’ That’s that, then.

Another thing that’s changed in the world of comedy of late is the cancellation of all those 2000s comedy panel shows. You know, the ones Ed always featured on like Mock The Week, and 8 Out of 10 Cats.

‘They’ve cancelled them all,’ he said. ‘The future of the panel show is… there is none.

‘They’ve got Have I Got News For You which they will always keep because it’s a stalwart and launched Boris Johnson’s career. So conservatives still love it I guess,’ he said. Again, Ed Byrne for PM, please?

Behind the scenes, it’s not the comedians who are generally worrying about the appropriateness of the jokes they say on these shows, explained Ed. ‘It’s the editor’s job. You just sit there and throw a lot of s**t at the wall.’

For every half-hour segment, there are hours of material to choose from. Being at the mercy of an editor can be a bit of a scary business, compared to the autonomy of stand-up.

‘I remember once using the word junkie twice in the course of a show, and they left both jokes in. It made me look like I had a thing about drug addicts, because of both the references. They could have just cut one of those out,’ he explained.

We can’t quite believe Ed hasn’t been offered a slot on Taskmaster yet… Greg? (Picture: Simon Webb/Channel 4)

Did he like filming the panel shows? ‘Yes, for the most part.’ Most part…?

‘In its later years Mock the Week became a lot more colligate and a lot more cooperative. But there was always a certain pressure that you were only as good as your last show, and you felt like you need to prove yourself every time,’ he said.

‘It was ruthless in the early days,’ Ed remembered. ‘It’s the only show on TV where you have six people – seven if you include Dara [Ó Briain] – all trying to make jokes about the same thing at the same time.’

Others used the ‘team a’ and ‘team b’ format to stop – as Ed put it – shows that aren’t Mock the Week from chucking a slab of meat at ‘seven dogs, that are all leaping for it at the same time.’

The comedy show of the moment is perhaps Taskmaster, which sees a series of comedian guests all complete over-the-top tasks under the beady eye of Greg Davies.

‘They haven’t asked. If they had, I would,’ Ed said, with a dash of longing.

‘There’s really only one slot per series of someone answering my description,’ he mused.

‘We’re kind of the most overprescribed demographic in the industry. There’s no shortage of people who look and sound like me that are ahead of me in the queue for that slot.’

Even so, it would have been nice… Greg? Are you listening?

Ed Byrne’s show Tragedy Plus Time is touring the UK now. For dates and tickets, visit his website here.

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Ed is having his say.