Jason Byrne

Review: Sky Arts Irish Comedy Shorts

Sky Arts has made a bit of a name for itself recently giving new and familiar talent a platform in pithy short films. They've done it before and they have done it again with a new selection of Ireland-based quickies.

Sky Arts '...In Ireland' shorts reviewed

Sky Arts must be pleased with the results of their latest round of comedy short films, unveiled at the Cat Laughs Festival in Kilkenny this weekend. Though each Irish-themed offering was shot in a day, there's not a duffer among the six, with almost all the comics featured drawing directly on dubious episodes from their lives.

This week's new live comedy

Previews of Seymour Mace, Arthur Smith and Jason Byrne.

The week in radio: Radio 2's Comedy Showcase review

Radio 2 doesn't often make me laugh - not intentionally, anyhow - but the station certainly does its bit for the joking business. Since 2011, it's been the home of the BBC new comedy award and its Comedy Showcase, which started in 2010, has developed several shows, some of which, such as Jason Byrne's Father Figure, have gone on to success. Last week, the Showcase was due to give us five new half-hour programmes, but one - The King's Men, with Robert Webb and Terry Mynott - was pulled because of the Paris attacks. I've heard it and can't quite understand why it's been vetoed (it's set in 1909, in London), but it concerns incompetent secret service agents and, at one point, there are the distant sounds of bombs in it. Anyway, if you want to hear it, it's on iPlayer. It's good.

As are the three other sitcoms in the Showcase (one set in a golf club, one about a nice young man and his bad dad, one centred around an older woman who's not happy with her lot). I liked them all; well crafted, well acted, with the requisite level of nuttiness. But it was the final programme, The Tim Vine Chat Show, which had me laughing the most. It's not a sitcom, it's a standup show, and its energy really fizzes from the radio.

Vine rattles out gags like Tommy Cooper: so many that, even if you don't think they're all funny, the cumulative effect is hilarious. He even forces in some awful jokes when he interviews members of the audience, and gets the whole room to join in some terrible catchphrases. It's a lovely way to spend half an hour.

Jason Byrne interview

Jason Byrne has officially been splitting sides for two decades. His latest tour, 20 Years A Clown, celebrates the lows and 'special eyes' of his career.

Jason Byrne review

He's been doing stand-up for 20 years; our reviewer has been watching him live for ten, and he's as funny as ever.

Jason Byrne interview

Jason Byrne excited to return to Southport after last year's "amazing" show.

Comedian of the month #19: Eleanor Tiernan

This month's Comedian Of The Month is the ever articulate and artistically mature Eleanor Tiernan, a comic who is particularly recognisable on the stand up circuit as a result of her time spent supporting acts such as Tommy Tiernan, Stewart Lee, Reginald D Hunter, Ardal O'Hanlon and Jason Byrne.

Lee Mack's fact-checking panel show - a kind of GCSE version of QI - returns for a third series, continuing its ongoing quest to verify all manner of urban mythology. Tonight's series opener invites Jerry Springer, Emma Bunton and Jason Byrne to the Duck pod, each armed with a pet fact to be tested to quacking point. After proving to the world that dog urine glows under ultraviolet light and that toilets tend to flush in E flat, it seems that no scientific theory is safe.

FHM mixes up Ed Byrne and Jason Byrne

Stand up comic Ed Byrne has tweeted his annoyance at being mistaken for a fellow comedian Jason Byrne by a national magazine - for the second time.