Ed Byrne - Pedantic And Whimsical DVD > Reviews > A Brilliantly Funny Performance

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Not applicable

Advantages:	Laugh out loud funny
Disadvantages:	Lots of drinking, swearing and smoking so not for kids

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

For those of you who haven't yet seen Ed Byrne on things like Just For Laughs, I would highly recommend him. Ed is an Irish guy who used to say he looked like Darlene from Roseanne and he's more of the observational comedy school but saying things you wish you'd had the nerve to say in those situations. He spends his whole time on stage drinking and smoking and he does swear rather a lot, so not one for showing children or for those who dislike swearing. The situations and punchlines actually left me laughing out loud and I had to pass them on to other people, which is quite rare with anyone other than Eddie Izzard in a live gig dvd.

This DVD is a recording of his live stage show at Leeds City Varieties and features a little talkback to the audience but not the relentless harvesting of material from them as you might find from Julian Clary or Al Murray. He moves fairly seamlessly from topic to topic, covering such things as smoking, airport check ins, his trips to the Grand Canyon, Australia and Dubai, Glaswegian mime, how good bed is, rows with his girlfriend and his famous dissection of Alanis Morissette's song Ironic.

I've tried to give a little sample of his humour, somewhat paraphrased as I've omitted swearing, asides etc and of course his delivery is much better than seeing it written:

"A traffic jam when you're already late. That's not ironic it's just a pain. However, if you were a town planner driving to a meeting where you were to deliver a paper on how you solved the town's traffic problems and you arrived late due to a traffic jam…. Now that's ironic."

"Did you pack your bags yourself? No, I have people to do that for me. I'm flying RyanAir, how many slaves do you think I have?"

"You know how it is when you have to get up in the morning for something? You work out with military precision how long it will take you to get where you need to go and to do everything you need to before leaving and set the alarm accordingly. The next morning the alarm goes off, all of a sudden you re-assess...10 minutes in the shower? That's just indulgence! I brushed my teeth last night so how much dirtier can they get overnight?"

He also describes a brilliant game that can be played in supermarkets with a male/female couple stocking up on alcohol for a party. I won't ruin it for you but, trust me, you'll be tempted to try it.

The DVD has limited extras - simply an audio commentary (which I generally dislike hearing as it detracts from the performance in my opinion) by friends and family, and an interview with Ed Byrne and Dara O'Briain, during which they watch bits of the live show and discuss it, which was OK. However, the DVD menu itself is quite amusing as there is a list of options and Ed walks on to the screen and sits on a stool making "dum-di-dum", "there you go" type comments while gesturing towards the options and once you select an option he tells you a bit about what will be shown.

It's hard to sum up Ed Byrne's appeal as I can't think of a comedian who is similar in style but if you like observational comedy from someone who speaks their mind when you wish you had the guts to do that yourself, then this dvd is definitely one to try.