Jason Byrne: The Lovely Goat Show: Edinburgh Fringe 2005, Assembly on the Mound, Edinburgh, 2005
Jason Byrne: Sheep for Feet and Rams for Hands: Edinburgh Fringe 2006, Assembly on the Mound, Edinburgh, 2006
Jason Byrne Live: Menier Chocolate Factory, London, 2006
Late ‘n’ Live: Edinburgh Fringe 2007, Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh, 2007
Jason Byrne’s Telly Idea Which May Also Work On The Radio Show: Edinburgh Fringe 2007, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, 2007
Jason Byrne: Shy Pigs With Wigs, Hidden In The Twigs: Edinburgh Fringe 2007, Assembly @ Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, 2007
Jason Byrne: Cats Under Mats, Having Chats With Bats: Edinburgh Fringe 2008, Assembly Hall on the Mound, Edinburgh, 2008
Best of the Fest: Edinburgh Fringe 2008, Assembly Hall on the Mound, Edinburgh, 2008
Jason Byrne: The Byrne Supremacy: Edinburgh Fringe 2009, Assembly on the Mound, Edinburgh, 2009
Jason Byrne 2010: Edinburgh Fringe 2010, Assembly @ Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, 2010
Jason Byrne: Cirque Du Byrne: Edinburgh Fringe 2011, Venue 150 @ EICC, Edinburgh, 2011
Jason Byrne: People’s Puppeteer: Edinburgh Fringe 2012, Venue 150 @ EICC, Edinburgh, 2012
Jason Byrne: People’s Puppeteer: Edinburgh Fringe 2012, Hammersmith Apollo, London, 2012
Jason Byrne’s Special Eye: Edinburgh Fringe 2013, Udderbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh, 2013
Jason Byrne: You Name The Show: Edinburgh Fringe 2014, Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, 2014
Jason Byrne: 20 Years A Clown: Edinburgh Fringe 2015, Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, 2015
Magners Greenwich Comedy Festival 2015: Greenwich Park, London, 2015
Jason Byrne Is Propped Up: Udderbelly, Southbank, London, 2016
Jason Byrne: The Man With Three Brains: Edinburgh Fringe 2017, Assembly Hall on the Mound, Edinburgh, 2017
Jason Byrne: The Man With Three Brains: Leicester Square Theatre, London, 2017
Jason Byrne: You Can Come In, But Don’t Start Anything: Edinburgh Fringe 2018, Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, 2018
Jason Byrne: Wrecked But Ready: Edinburgh Fringe 2019, Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, 2019
Jason Byrne’s Morning Workout: Online: 2020
Jason Byrne’s Jokes In The Jacks (2 shows): Online: 2020
Jason Byrne’s Fringe Fringe (2 shows): Online: 2020
Jason Byrne: Audience Precipitation: Leicester Square Theatre, London, 2021
Jason Byrne: Unblocked: Edinburgh Fringe 2022, Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh, 2022
Jason Byrne: The Paddy Lama – Shed Talks: Edinburgh Fringe 2022, Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh, 2022
Jason Byrne: The Ironic Bionic Man: Edinburgh Fringe 2023, Assembly on The Mound, Edinburgh, 2023
Jason Byrne has played the Edinburgh Festival for well over twenty years. The extraordinarily funny Irishman’s live shows are legendary, and I have seen every one of them since I started going to the Fringe in 2005. Every year, even the shows titles are masterly, and Byrne is a very popular sell-out comedian.
There are so many memorable funny moments that I have seen at Byrne’s shows over the years. Three of my favourites are firstly, at one of his early shows, the performance had been going on for about twenty minutes and someone in the audience was late for the show. As he was sitting down without trying to be noticed, Byrne caught him out of the corner of his eye, encouraged the latecomer to join him on stage and then rewound the show using physical comedy to the beginning so that the audience member had not missed anything. It was one of the most memorably funny things I have ever seen on the stage with Byrne acting out all the mannerisms in reverse. Secondly, to open the show, Byrne appeared hanging from a giant ball swinging around like a madman and resembling Miley Cryrus’ Wrecking Ball album cover. The laughter he created that night from the opening of the show was amazing. Finally, whilst Byrne was on stage, his show was interrupted by an audience group on his left trying to pass a tray of drink to another group on Byrne’s right. He stopped the show and took the tray of drink from his left and looked like he was about to pass them to the group on his right. Instead at the last minute, he started drinking and spilling the drinks on stage and looked at the left audience group and said grinningly, please don’t interrupt the show again! The audience cheered wildly, and he got on with the rest of the show.
In all of Byrne’s unpredictable live shows, audience members never know what is going to happen and are always ended up being used as props for daft routines that Byrne has conjured up. The shows are always very appealing, and the audience interaction Byrne generates is one of his greatest qualities. Because he gives his absolute all to make an audience cry with laughter, he always looks exhausted by the end of the show as are the audience who cannot laugh anymore.
Byrne returned to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018 for his twenty-third year with his new show You Can Come In, But Don’t Start Anything. The show featured routines about Irish upbringing and social class intertwined with the usual silly games and incredible audience interaction that left me crying with laughter. Byrne’s angry Irish rants are legendary like the man himself and the madness, visually funny face and energy were off the scale in another extraordinary display of comic genius.
As I do every year, I saw Byrne again at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2019 with his show Wrecked But Ready. The audience learned that unfortunately Byrne had separated from his wife however he even made this situation funny by comparing marriage to a horse and jockey being separated, then they are lost. Byrne’s impersonation of being lost was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.
2020 was a weird year. Everybody was confined for the most part to their homes because of a worldwide pandemic. Many comedians delivered shows online and every other morning Byrne appeared on Facebook Live demonstrating a workout. Exercise can be so tough especially during lockdown but when the trainer was Byrne his whole online audience had a blast. I was laughing so hard at his crazy routines and did my best to exercise along with him. Byrne also had a hysterical half hour with his show Jokes In The Jacks that I saw in June and October 2020. The shows featured his trumpeting skills, games of comedy roulette to see which numbered bags contained flour which he had to burst and the introduction of Northern comedian Dicky Bow who told crude jokes! It was all inspired lunacy and had me crying with laughter.
Because of the Coronavirus outbreak, for the first time in its history, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was cancelled in August 2020. It left a massive creative void in everyone’s summer but Byrne, the exceptionally popular fringe stalwart triumphantly delivered two shows each performed in front of a socially distanced small live audience at the Venue Theatre in Ratroath, Ireland and streamed around the world. Billed as Jason Byrne’s Fringe Fringe, I saw both shows online that featured brilliant routines from the funny man including arriving on stage swinging on a Coronavirus ball, cycling, fitness and exercise, home schooling, Americans visiting Ireland, countries attempting to cope with the epidemic, TikTok, Fortnight, Supermarkets, Super Nanny’s vs his mammy and a wonderful heartfelt and hilarious tribute to his father.
Byrne returned in November 2021 with a live tour Audience Precipitation which I saw at the Leicester Square Theatre in London. One of the best comedians to connect with an audience, the comedian effortlessly created comedy from chatting with them building up the laughs to an almighty crescendo.
It was utterly joyous to see Byrne live back on stage with his new solo show Unblocked at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2022. The biggest selling comedy act delivered another riotous hour effortlessly interacting with the audience and creating wonderful comedy from thin air. I also watched Byrne’s hilarious and moving play about his father. The Paddy Lama – Shed Talks featured Byrne playing his dad putting the world to rights from the comfort of his shed. Written by the comedian, the play was a wonderful tribute to his clearly inspired dad.
In 2023, Byrne’s show, wonderfully titled The Ironic Bionic Man, focussed on his unfortunate health scares from being born with a lazy eye, his lungs collapsing (now inflated and sealed with metal pins, removed appendix, knee cartilage replaced, arm dislocation and six stents in his heart. All told with such gusto, enthusiasm, and hilarity as only Byrne can, this was a wonderfully funny hour of riotous stories and trademark audience participation.
Byrne is one of the most brilliantly funny comedians that has to be seen live on stage. I look forward to seeing him again and again for many years to come at the Edinburgh Fringe and beyond.