Irish comedian Jason Byrne is back in Australia in 2017 for the first time in two years.
Jason returns to the comedy-festival circuit from March and brings with him his new comedy show, ‘Propped Up’. On his last Australian tour in 2015, Jason reintroduced his infamous prop comedy and audience participation and will be bringing it to the stage once again.
“Because I took a year off, I have basically two years worth of stuff to bring now,” he says. “I used props a long time ago because I had a really bad memory; I just couldn’t remember stuff… So I would throw props in there to help me; kind of like bullet points.
“Then I came away from that. But then I thought with this show, I’m going to go back to that prop thing because people were asking me ‘why don’t you have props anymore?’ So this show is just full of props… It has a flying Gwyneth Paltrow and big Chris Martin head. It’s got stuffed elves and dolphin heads.
“It doesn’t mean anything right now. I don’t just take them out and show them to the audience, they all have meaning to them.”
{youtube}e6y_rzNp6b0{/youtube}
The characters in Jason’s show have grown to become more famous than himself in the past, making them important figures in his show. Jason has been coming to Australia for 14 years and is looking forward to coming back.
“I’ve been going for 14 years I think... In Ireland, here farmers have a thing called ‘resting a field’… It’s when you go cropping a field and you can only take so many crops and you have to rest it for a year-or-so, so the nutrients can get back in the ground. So that’s what I was doing.
“I was going every year so I thought I’d rest the field,” Jason says. While in Australia, he likes to get out and about with his family as much as he can.
“I go to Australia and do the show but I try and do as much other stuff as I can… Basically what I do in Australia is I get outside and get on bikes. I ride, I exercise, I walk beside rivers, lakes and beaches. I’m so active when I’m there.”
{youtube}pQaroJ_NF1U{/youtube}
Apart from comedy, Jason has made an author of himself, recently publishing his memoirs. “I just finished a book called ‘Adventures Of A Wonky-Eyed Boy’. That was a book written about me growing up in Ireland from the age of 5 to about 15… That’s going to be released in Australia while I’m there.”
Jason says writing the book was one of the proudest moments of his life; and he is currently working on a children’s book. “They always say everybody has a book in them and I really didn’t think I’d be able to do it… When somebody hands over that book into your hands, that was my most proud moment: apart from the birth of my children.”
Currently enduring the cold misery of Ireland’s winter, Jason can’t express enough how eager he is to be back in Australia and back on the stage.
“I can’t wait to get back to Australia and to dive into all the positivity again.”
Jason Byrne Tour Dates
23-26 Mar - Brisbane Comedy Festival30 Mar - 23 Apr - Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Fri 28 Apr - Sydney Comedy Festival
Sat 29 Apr - Perth Comedy Festival
