Review: Ed Byrne @ King George's Hall, Blackburn (From Preston and Leyland Citizen)

Review: Ed Byrne @ King George's Hall, Blackburn

12:07pm Tuesday 17th November 2009 in Stage By Chris Gee, Reporter

Genial and engaging Irish comic Ed Byrne gave a hugely entertaining Sunday night performance at King George’s Hall, Blackburn, to an appreciative audience.

Bounding on to a stage devoid of props or even a backdrop, the Mock The Week and Eight Out Of 10 Cats star’s show is called Different Class and much of the material revolved around Byrne’s uneasiness with the class system.

This provided plenty of scope for Byrne’s imagination to go on various flights of fancy including the merits of eating pheasant with alphabet spaghetti and a compelling analysis of the plot flaws in the Back To The Future films.

Byrne prowled the stage among a windmill of arm movements railing against petty injustices and revealing which of life’s trivialities drive him to distraction.

The tone of his language was never harsh though and he was only too quick to acknowledge his own failings in a self-deprecating way.

The second half of the show was dominated by a description of newly-wed Byrne’s own nuptials, including the horrors of planning a wedding and the way the upcoming event dominates the lives of previously sane couples.

In the middle of his show, Byrne gave a five-minute slot to ambitious Blackburn comedian Lewis Costello, 16, who gave a confident display of undoubted potential.