Ed Byrne: Roaring Forties

• Kirstyn Smith
• 22 August 2013

This article is from 2013.

A master of the stand-up art lets rip

By now, you know exactly what you’re getting with Ed Byrne: a slice of first-rate stand-up comedy that acts as an anchor of quality in the often choppy storm of the Fringe. ‘Since I’ve hit my 40s, I’ve felt the need to be a dick more often,’ he opens, commencing a perfectly sculpted hour of long-form storytelling and quickfire barbs about his sudden tendency for childish behaviour and a total lack of patience for anyone who rubs him up the wrong way.

Roaring Forties acts as a snapshot of Byrne’s life: he’s now a father of two and doesn’t have time to fear the ageing process; indeed, he embraces his grumpy old bastard status with all due respect. Byrne is observational, certainly, but he mixes it all up with a bit of politics, a touch of satire, plus doses of self-deprecation and misanthropy in equal measure.

More than all that though, he is a master of this game. As an Edinburgh Fringe stalwart and TV regular, his naturally funny, well-crafted and logical approach to joke-making is an opportunity to simply sit back and take in someone who really knows what they’re doing.

EICC, 0844 847 1639, until 25 Aug, 9.20pm, £17.50–£19.50.