Seeing Jason Byrne live in Birmingham is a no brainer

Jason will bringing back his famous warm and generous stagecraft to the stage, following a 2016 UK tour that featured silly props in the form of giant ducks, rubber hands, owls and big wooden pegs.

And after that surreal display, the funnyman has decided it’s time to peel back the madness that’s inside his head, revealing all three of his brains working individually.

His left brain scans the audience and room, looking for improv moments. His right brain collates stand-up material and stunts, poised to dish out the funnies at speed. His centre brain is Jason’s coach, pushing him to the limit.

He says: “On my last tour, I created an entire show full of props, and the audiences couldn’t stop laughing. I wanted to show them some of the method behind the madness, peeling back to reveal my three brains. It’s going to give audiences an insight into my mind with a lot of laughs along the way.”

It’s been a busy few years for Jason. In addition to his extensive touring worldwide, his Radio 2 Show was awarded the UK radio industry’s prestigious Sony Radio Gold Award. As well as fronting a brand new studio based comedy chat show Jason Byrne’s Snaptastic Show for TV3 in Ireland, he is co-host of Sky’s popular entertainment programme Wild Things on Sky1.

Jason’s new TV series for Dave, Don’t Say It, Bring It is a new game show, loosely based on a scavenger hunt. The programme will be broadcast on November 13 and there will be two episodes back to back from 7pm each week night for two weeks.

The performer is looking forward to being back in the Midlands, having survived the recent Storm Ophelia while out in Ireland. “Thank God. It came while I was there. Scary.”

Jason says it’s important to create a new show because many of his fans come back year after year. “The same people return and bring a friend. To be honest, it’s so hard to talk about what I do because every show is different. The best thing is to look at Twitter and Facebook each night – you’ll see how different it is because the comments never match.”

His present show will feature a few commonalities: for instance, Jason had a vasectomy last year and makes fun out of that. “I never thought I’d get so much material out of it. We go round to find out who else has had vasectomies. You’d be surprised at how many there are.”

He plays Birmingham on every tour and says the city has its own idiosyncrasies. Birmingham – they’re always late coming in, they’re always busy having a party. Last year I found out ten different places you can park in Birmingham. They were all late in and they all gave the same reason – finding somewhere to park. So we went round the audience to find out where the best places are. People like it when a performer engages with them, rather than just acts out a routine. They leave like it’s been a breath of fresh air. Even I don’t know what’s going to happen.

“I work on the show loads but I don’t get to do all of it because I’ve always overtaken by events. I’d say 70 per cent is scripted and the rest is just improv on the night. There are times when I get the audience involved and they’re the funniest of all. I’ve no idea why they want me or they like me because they’re so funny themselves. They come up with different stuff themselves.

“I guess they’re always late in because there’s a bit of bar action in Birmingham and that’s fine. But it’s mainly the car parking situation, unless they are all lying to me.”

On his most recent visit to the Second City, Jason e found out a number of audience members unwittingly knew one another. He got a guy on stage, who happened to be a builder. And during a routine, it transpired that the builder had put in a kitchen for an audience member. After that person had shouted out, another called: “He’s been round to mine, too. He tiled my bathroom.”

“It’s great when that happens. It’s spontaneous and fun. The audience involvement has become more and more pronounced over the years and that’s a really good thing. I just love the punters. I love what I can find out about them. They are really good, that’s the thing. I don’t want to do the same show every night, it’s not risky enough. I love risk. I always was a risk taker.”

Jason has developed a burgeoning TV and film career – though he thinks that work is easy compared to live stand up. “Everyone likes a bit of a movie. But when I’m in them, I relax because I haven’t written it. If it’s rubbish, it’s not my fault. With stand-up, it’s pressure – people want you to be funny now, funny now. So any other job – TV or film or a game show like Ireland’s Got Talent ( . . . on which he’s a judge) – is easier than a stand-up. Stand-up is like a marathon, you need to keep going.”