THE applause goes on so long when Ed Byrne appears live that the comedian is forced to return to the stage for an encore.

His audiences simply won’t leave until they have been treated to a few more of his comic gems.

On November 15 it’s a Blackburn crowd who’ll be clapping for more as the comedian appear as part of the town’s ‘You Must Be Joking’ comedy festival.

And Ed is just as charming off stage as on it. He possesses a genuine magnetism which he exudes like one of those force fields in an old episode of Star Trek.

Ed, who hails from Dublin, starts by assessing why his new tour titled “Different Class” is striking such a chord with audiences.

He says people are lapping it up because he reveals so much about himself.

What is appealing is how candidly the comic discusses everything from his recent wedding to his frustration at thinking up the appropriate bon mot long after the moment has passed.

“The best comedy comes from a personal angle,” declares 36-year-old Ed, who has appeared on TV shows Have I Got News For You, Mock the Week, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and 8 out of 10 Cats.

“Sometimes you hear a comedian on stage saying, ‘I’m single,’ and you think, ‘no, you’re not, you’re married with kids!’ "I think it makes a great difference if as a comic you can take your own life and tell the truth about it.

"If it’s real, it makes it so much better. It gives it much more authenticity and has far greater punch.”

The Irishman, who since last summer has been very happily married, said: “You could be accused of self-indulgence, but my experience has been that audiences really like it when you reveal something of yourself on stage.

"It’s not funny unless they believe it. For instance, one section of ‘Different Class’ that goes down very well is where I talk about my status.

"I discuss neither being massively famous nor totally obscure and how strange it is simply to be known as ‘that bloke’.”

One of the many outstanding sections of “Different Class”, which completely sold out during its month-long run at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, his wedding.

He extracts loads of laughs from highlighting the numerous rip-offs in the wedding industry.

He jokes, for example, that “the best thing is that since I’ve been married, I haven’t had to plan a wedding!”

He also wants to congratulate the man who invented the tradition that the bridegroom should never see his bride’s dress before The Big Day: “I want to shake his hand for getting us out of that particular shopping expedition. ‘Honey, nothing would give me greater pleasure than watching you try on infinity wedding dresses!’”

Ed reflects that in this part of the show, “I’m not slagging off my wife, I’m slagging off the wedding industry.

"Everyone can relate to the minor frustrations that any wedding involves, such as arguing about stuff that you don’t really care about.”

In this show, the comic also proffers some very strong material on that perennial obsession: the class system.

Ed comes up with some great lines about it. “Pheasant is posh,” he muses at one point, “even if you eat it with Alphabetti Spaghetti!”

He observes that, “we’re all fascinated by the subject of class, and there’s a lot of comic mileage in it. It’s a leitmotif that runs through the show.

"The funny thing is, when I’ve been asking an audience ‘who would call themselves middle class?’, only one brave soul usually puts his hand up.

"I can’t believe that in an affluent West London there is only one middle-class person!”  Ed is delighted that “Different Class” is receiving so much acclaim. He tries to appraise quite why it has chimed with audiences to such a degree. “I’ve been reliably informed that this is my best show yet,” he smiles.

“It’s partly down to experience. More than anything, though, as mushy as it sounds, it’s down to the love of a good woman.

"That helps my comedy because it means I’m freer to focus on it.

“In 2004, a lot of my show was centred on my bitterness about a previous girlfriend.

"It was cathartic, but at the same time it wasn’t very fair, as she wasn’t there to stand up for herself.

"That style didn’t suit me. I think what I’m doing now suits me much better.”

l See Ed Byrne’s Different Class at King George's Hall, Blackburn, on November 15. Box office 0844 847 1644