‘Bionic man’ Jason Byrne coming soon to Cambridge
Having interviewed Irish comic Jason Byrne last year, I was well aware of his hereditary cholesterol condition which led to him having heart surgery, but I didn’t know about his various other ailments, all of which have ‘inspired’ his new comedy show.
Jason’s amazingly energetic gig last year at Cambridge Junction – a venue he always enjoys performing at – was called Unblocked, partly because of his heart surgery, but also celebrating the end of Covid restrictions, which meant that this true master of his art could once again indulge in the kind of memorable audience participation for which he is well known and get people up on stage to do all manner of things.
The current show is titled The Ironic Bionic Man, a reference to not only the stents that the 51-year-old has in his heart, but also the cock eye he was born with which was then straightened, his collapsed lung which was blown back up and sealed with metal pins, the removal of his appendix, the cartilage that was replaced in his knee, and his arm which was dislocated by a wave.
That’s quite a list! “Yeah, that’s why I called the show The Ironic Bionic Man, because we go through all those different things that happened to me, but they’re not fun – they’re kind of unfortunate,” explains Jason, speaking to the Cambridge Independent from Ireland, where he has also hosted his own chat show, Jason Byrne’s Snaptastic Show, for TV3.
“My lung collapsed when I was 21 because I was tall and thin, so that’s like stapled closed – that’s the best way to describe the surgery.
“My eye was straightened when I was about 12, my arm was dislocated in the sea in Australia when I was surfing… and it wasn’t even proper surfing, it was boogie boarding.
“The wave hit me and it spun me around like a washing machine – and then because the boogie board was attached to my wrist, it pulled on my arm and pulled it out of its socket.
“Then I’ve no appendix – that got taken out – and yeah, I’ve got six stents, and the cartilage in my knee went when I was going to the loo.
“So I’ve got loads of staples and nails and bits, and I remember watching the Bionic Man in The Six Million Dollar Man [a popular 1970s TV series] – and he had the same thing.
“He was an astronaut, he had an accident or something, and they had to give him a bionic eye, a bionic arm and a leg, so that’s why I thought it was funny – that I’m kind of like him.
“But I’m more held together with bits and Sellotape and staples than he is. He’s got a proper bionic eye and a cool arm, but mine’s all just bent.”
Jason, hailed by The Times as the “outright king of live comedy”, reveals that he actually gets a member of the audience up on stage during the show as a “substitute Jason Byrne” – “just in case anything happens to me”.
“I get them up and they become me for a bit,” he notes, “and in Cambridge I normally find out what’s going on in the area and that’s how it works, just all kinds of improv and messing and props and bits and mooing and dancing and jumping – and this is non-stop. Maybe that’s why I have six stents!”
Jason, a judge on Ireland’s Got Talent, is the kind of stand-up who feeds off a place and a room, often just using the title of his show as a template, taking the audience on a wild, unplanned journey, meaning that each show is usually very different.
“I’ve learned over the years that Cambridge has absolutely nothing to do with Liverpool, and Liverpool has nothing to do with Newcastle, and Newcastle has never even been to Brighton,” he observes.
“I have to change my style in every single city – not really the stories, but definitely the style.”
Come and see what mayhem Jason has in store for Cambridge this time around when he appears at the Junction’s J2 on Saturday, September 16.
[Read more: Comedian Jason Byrne: ‘Let everybody laugh at whatever they think is funny and leave them to it’, The LAB Cocktail Bar on Regent Street, Cambridge, to host Big Deal Comedy night]
Tickets, priced £28, are available at junction.co.uk. For more on Jason, go to jasonbyrne.ie.
