In an increasing trend amongst the big-name comics, this is Jason Byrne's 'other show', and this year involves grabbing four guest celebrities as panellists for the top table, a couple of random punters from the audience to keep the score and count the sweary words (of which there are quite a few). Stick it all in a hall in front of a sold out audience (which very happily also has a bar serving beer throughout the show), and away we go.
As you'd expect from Jason Byrne, it's all good boisterous fun he seems to be enjoying himself just as much as anyone else in the room, and this helps carry along the whole daft premise of the act. We're trying out various ideas for a new telly game show, heavily borrowed from existing formats, so we have the Pitch your new format to the commissioning editor slot (winner: Who's poo is it anyway?), followed by a Reeves & Mortimer style Play your cards right, and then a similarly bizarre Who's washing line is it anyway?.
All good stuff and perfectly pleasant, and it went down a treat with the packed house.
It was hard to tell just how much was ad libbed and how much was scripted in advance (so I guess it's very true to life in that regard). If you've seen his main solo act this year too, you'll recognise a few of the jokes at this one, but to be honest nobody seemed to care when the material is as funny and delivered so convincingly.
If you're thinking of going, get there early to sit near the front, as the layout and acoustics of the hall can make it a wee bit difficult to keep up with the goings-on from the back.
All-in-all, a fun if slightly madcap way to spend an hour.
