OK, he just has to get the five stars. The audience were eating out of the palm of his hand all night. Having said that, I didnt really see much of his planned set because the constant audience interruptions and happenings meant that we didnt let him do it. What you see will not be the same show, but Im fairly sure it will be just as funny Jason cant help himself.
What he did deliver was a tour-de-force hour of comedy for a 400-strong audience that seemed to be plucked out of the air in front of our very eyes.
Firstly, someone lobbed a banana onstage (not at Jason, just onto the stage). He was dealing with this nicely when a woman in another part of the crowd yells eat the banana, so he stops to turn his attention to her. Just as thats playing out, some local loony gives us a somewhat impolite heckle involving Jasons mothers nether regions. He fixed that guy up nicely by making him look like the idiot that he was, then someone arrives late with one arm inside their shirt instead of in their sleeve. Jasons being nice to this guy, assuming a broken arm, but no that would be too easy for tonights audience, who seem to be ganging up on Jason, and the guy is just wearing it like that because he wants to.
Jason is by now convinced that the entire audience has got together before the show to co-ordinate their approach to heckling, and subsequent events seem to bear this out. Just as he starts his proper set, with a few words about his young son, another mad woman in the audience shouts out to ask him how long hes been married. He bats this away nicely without answering, and seems to have got off the hook when yet another punter yells out no, really we want to know how long have you been married?. Jasons totally flummoxed by now, but is still pulling out great lines to deal with the crowd.
And so it goes on for the rest of the hour, until finally someone comes in late five minutes from the end of the show. Jasons not having this, and proceeds to replay the entire show so far to the one latecomer giving the banana back to its hurler, reminding everyone of their heckles etc etc the whole fifty minutes done over again in five. As you can imagine, the crowd loved all of this knockabout stuff and left with a real buzz that theyd seen a unique evenings entertainment.
That ultimately is what separates Jason Byrne from the rest of the comedy pack the quit-witted genius turned to devastating effect to make us laugh with him and at him in turn. As with most big-name comics at the Fringe, youre pretty much guaranteed at least a safe, four-star evening of entertainment but if youre lucky, Jason may give you some of the old five-star magic.
