Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: Irish Comedian Ed Byrne On His Greatest Gag!

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

Irish Comedian Ed Byrne is coming to NZ for the International Comedy Fest!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. The New Zealand International Comedy Festival starts next week and coming over is the very funny Irish comedian Ed Byrne. He's hilarious. You might have heard this joke a few years back. He did a whole bit about Alanis Morissette's song Ironic. But the best line in that song, the best line ever written ever, has got to be the line, it's like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife.

That's not ironic. That's just stupid. How big is your sink, Alanis? He joins us right now, head of his show, if I'm honest. Ed Byrne, what are you looking at right now? Right now, I am in Sydney, Australia, and I'm looking at the workers across the road who have paused momentarily from their angle grinding in the morning.

Oh, that's a... I am understanding it's a busy metropolitan area and work has to be done. That's early. I hope they understand there are comedians in town. Yeah, that's early for a comedian, angle grinding in the morning. It's nice to talk to you. It's so lovely to have you come back to New Zealand. We're very excited about that. But I want to know, you come back to New Zealand. We're very excited about that.

But I want to know, does coming back to New Zealand bring you good memories or bad memories? Because I was reading yesterday that you proposed to your now wife, Claire, in Kaikoura at the Green Dolphin restaurant. But she originally said no. She said no just very briefly as a joke. Isn't that really funny, though? Isn't that just hilarious? The man proposed to you and you say no for a joke. What a a joke. Isn't that really funny, though? Isn't that, like, just hilarious? It is. When a man proposes to you and you say no for a joke. Ah, what a good joke.

Momentarily, your heart must have been broken, Ede. Yeah, when she said it, I goes, I'm asking you to marry me. She said no, and I said, what? And, like, literally pushed the ring back across the table towards me, tears in her eyes. She goes, I can't marry you. And I went, oh. And then she went, what are you, okay?

In that moment, though, I don't think she realized the damage she did. I know. The name of your show is called If I'm Honest. You take a good hard look at yourself, exploring what traits you want to pass on to your kids. I mean, spoiler alert, are there any traits that you want to pass on that you have? There's very little. There's very little. I mean, like you say, it's quite succinctly there.

The show comes from the premise that nothing in the world will ever annoy you as much as your own child. Nothing will get under your skin and irritate you like your own child. The reason that your own children are so annoying to you is because they're annoying in ways you recognize in yourself. Yes. That's quite irritating, yet also strangely familiar. So that's what's prompt to this.

You know, hearing my own exact words coming out of an eight-year-old's mouth, things like that. Well, geez, you're getting rave reviews. Five stars you got in Melbourne, and just to line out of here, all while Burn is as sprightly as ever at 51. Sprightly. 51's not that old. No, I mean,

that really is a mixed blessing, that is. That's a real backhand to give you a five-star review and then refer to you as sprightly in the same review.

Stuff for his age. Those five stars are the stars he thinks I see if I get out of a chair too quickly. What are we like, what are the stars he thinks I see if I get out of a chair too quickly. What are we like? What are the New Zealand audiences like?

Because I imagine we're quite reserved depending on the night of a crowd in New Zealand, like compared to the rest of the world. It can be. Yeah, it can be quite weird. I remember the first time coming to New Zealand being surprised at how little people would answer questions. If you were just like, hey, is anybody here smoked? Or, you know, who here's got kids? And the audience was just standing there going,

no, I'm not joining on. I'm not joining on. I do tell a story actually about going out one time on a Tuesday night, in Auckland it was, and trying to just get everybody riled up on a Tuesday, which is a juicy thing to do anyway. I'm like, come on, we've got work in the morning. We don't care.

Come on, Tuesday people, make some Tuesday noise. And they just weren't getting on board that hey it's Tuesday boss and then I only discovered

after the show was over that it was Wednesday nothing undermines your credibility as an observational comedian

like not knowing what day it is lovely catching up with you mate 11th, 12th, 13th Ed Byrne part of the week is. Lovely catching up with you, mate. 11th, 12th, 13th, Ed Byrne, part of the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, if I'm honest, is the show.

Five stars. He's still sprightly. He's kicking away. Oh, yeah. Surprisingly flexible. Lovely to talk to you. We can't wait to have you back in New Zealand. Cheers.

I'll see you then.