Charlie's Comedians - B - Byrne, Ed

I've never seen Ed Byrne do a full live show. So everything I say about him could be totally wrong really; I truly think the only way to really judge someone is to see their proper show (as in a whole hour) in real life. However, obviously you can get a vague idea from other things.

I've only seen Ed Byrne once in fact - that seems surprising; I saw him hosting an Amnesty International Stand Up For Freedom gig in 2009. It was at midnight at the end of the rainiest, most horrible day in Edinburgh ever (still brilliant though, obviously!). And Ed was wonderful - dispelling our low moods and really making the night special.

Of course I've seen the old clips of him doing the Alanis Morrisette stuff that he became really well known for (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT1TVSTkAXg). I watched a recent show of his Different Class and wasn't amazed.

However, I still really like him - he used to live with Ross Noble and seems like a really nice person. He's not exactly my sort of thing but I always enjoy him hosting things and he's great on Robin Ince and Josie Long's Utter Shambles (some of my favourite podcasts). I also have a lot of respect for him as he does Robin Ince's Nine Lessons and Carols For Godless People - there's nothing as sexy as a clever, rational man. Having said that I think Ed Byrne is one of those comedians I don't fancy. Though he's lovely! I'm not sure about the name of his new show, Crowd Pleaser, I suppose he'll be doing something with the title though so I wouldn't like to judge too soon!

There he is. And here's the wonderful Stewart Lee on the Big Brother Scandal of 2007 (Ed Byrne would probably rather forget that he was the voice of the Carphone Warehouse adverts): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IE0kSZmW6g