BY JOY HADDEN
[star rating =5/5]
If any stand up comedian can prey on a sold out audience at Assembly Hall, Jason Byrne can; the “big paddy wack ding dong” that he is. From the minute he arrived on stage for his show You Can Come in, But Don’t Start Anything, loud laughter of the audience was a true indication of how this master of chaos and clowning about was engaging with every age and nationality. Albeit, using them as his subjects. Byrne offers a posh deep voice teenager advice, “never mind a voice for radio, you’ve got a voice for a vibrator.”
After about 10 minutes of audience mockery and mayhem, he gets into what seems to be his actual material. His randomness and spontaneous nonsense leaves it difficult to decipher if anything is actually planned however.
At 46, Byrne has realised that he has to start exercising in order to try and stop death. He shares his gym/weight lifting training with us, but when he trebles his recommended magnesium tablet intake to relax his muscles, he shares a bit too much and the audience just about explodes with him.
He brings it back to family chat, with how parents in 2018 treat their children as “friends”; spoiling them, offering choices and soft calming words when they have been naughty. His show has a then and now theme about it, then being his ‘adorable’ memories of growing up in the 1980s. A time when choking on plastic toys from cereal boxes and being crammed into a car with no seat belts was normal.
He recalls a fond memory of when his mother broke a brush over his back when beating him, only to shout “look what you made me do!” But now in 2018, Byrne blames the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) for their molly cuddling of kids in high-vis safety gear in case they accidentally walk through a puddle; and how they learn nothing from safety nets on a trampoline.
I’m not suggesting taking any learning points from this entertaining, and energetic man, but he certainly does know how to put on a five star hour of hilarity.
Regardless of your age I guarantee he’ll make you laugh. However, If you’re an easily offended PTA member, or super-nanny, this show might not be for you.
