Atlantic Edge Music Services

Ed Byrne in Shetland

November 10, 2011

Irish comedian Ed Byrne - star of TV programmes such as 'Have I Got News For You', 'Mock the Week' and 'Live at the Apollo', played to a near capacity audience at Lerwick's Clickimin Centre in October 2010 as part of his nationwide 'Crowd Pleaser' tour.

Byrne brought his "observational sense of humour" to Shetland for the first time, having trialed the show in Orkney - among other places - last year.

Subject matter ranged from his wife's state of mind during her pregnancy and their young sons subsequent feeding and bodily habits (Byrne became a dad for the first time fairly recently) - to his parents-in-law's view of domestic issues - to his cats cleaning habits, plus it's ability to bring large external 'catches' into their home alive - to life on earth v's life on Mars. 

Once of the funniest sections again related to his cat - which up until it moved in with them had been a stray - as he analysed and compared its overall living habits to that of a person behaving in a similar way in their home. Details are perhaps best not gone into - and if his young son should ever see the DVD of this show in the future.............well!!!

He also showed a more than passable command of Shetland dialect when recalling his student days in Glasgow, thanks to a Shetland flatmate (Ryan Leith) who it subsequently turned out was in the audience and who caught up with Ed again after the show.

Davie Gardner of Atlantic Edge Music Services, who promoted the show in association with 'Beyond' from Inverness, said that Ed has been a real pleasure to work with. "He brought a kind of old fashioned humour back to the stage" said Davie. "Witty observations of, and from, his everyday life and those around him - which I guess we could all easily relate to. Ed's a natural comedian even when he's not on the stage and one of the most modest guys we've had the pleasure of working with up here. He was delighted by the reception he received before, during and after the show (including taking in a local music session in Lerwick's famous 'Lounge' bar) and it's clear from that reception that the audience loved the show into the bargain".

A DVD of the 'Crowd Pleaser' show (sadly not recorded in Shetland) is due for release on the 28th November. Order it - HERE

Read the Shetland Times review of the show - HERE

All photos courtesy of Kevin Jones Photography - thanks to him for that.