Jason Byrne at Leicester Square Theatre

Jason Byrne at Leicester Square Theatre

04 December, 2009
by: Emma

The last time I saw Jason Byrne, he was on flying form, having a lot of fun with the audience, improvising like there was no tomorrow and even carrying people to their seats. In cardboard boxes. Tonight's crowd aren't quite as forthcoming, meaning the exuberant Irish comic is forced to rely on more material. It's not that his material is dodgy, it's not: he can certainly spin a good yarn and his colourful anecdotes about marital life, his nagging wife and their meagre sex life never fail to draw laughs from all the knowing couples in the audience. 

It's just that this is well-trodden ground for him and some bits are actually taken from his 2007 show Shy Pigs With Wigs Hidden In Twigs. While some anecdotes and carefully constructed jokes can be heard again and again (see Stewart Lee on Joe Pasquale), Byrne's stories of domestic feuds over the cutlery drawer and scary countryside noises are not the kind which retain their entertainment factor on the second telling. The highlights for me are some non-wife-based material from his last show The Byrne Supremacy about his father with a 'handicapped heart' (an excellent phrase describing the reserved affections of our parents' generation) and his evil granny ("nans were always nice, grannies were always evil"). He also makes a good case for his sex's inclination to buy pointless, yet hilarious, objects by whipping out an oversized clothes-peg and a pencil sharpener from his bag. 'Nuff said.

As with shows, the laughs keep coming. It's not exactly side-splitting or highbrow stuff ("Wouldn't it be great if your penis made a shotgun noise when you pressed it?!") but the man has a knack for making even the most mundane and puerile of subjects amusing. Sadly, just as he seems to be on a roll, the show ends on what feels like a cheap trick to wind up the hour. Quite literally in fact, as two staid audience members are roped in to help with some 'magic' involving sawing a cardboard box in half. It's clearly supposed to be a hilarious shambles and perhaps with the right people, it might have been, but tonight, watching Byrne yelling at his two hapless volunteers try and attempt the most basic of stunts, it's like pulling teeth.

His real gift lies with improvisation and physical comedy. When he melds the two together, using razor-sharp wit, caricature-like facial expressions and boundless energy, he has the audience eating out of his hand. But there has to be something for him to bounce off and the atmosphere is fairly dry this evening. I've always thought that with the right comedian, regardless of ancient material or technical problems, he or she can get away with a great gig. And although tonight was by no means a disaster, it was't great either. In the end, even the most competent and natural comics aren't able to shine if the crowd isn't on board for the ride.

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Emma