Jason Byrne: People's Puppeteer

You have to admire—even grudgingly—the ability of Jason Byrne to take what many comedians would consider the warm-up portion of their hour and make into an entire show. 

Save for the ridiculous ending (a school-play style homage to the equally ridiculous David Copperfield), this latest offering from the 40 year-old Irishman relies slightly less heavily on audience interaction than many of his previous shows.

That said, there is still plenty of time for Byrne to break from his largely  bodily-related material to banter with his punters and often misinterpret them, either genuinely or as part of his deliberate style of raising the stakes and the perceived hysterical tension of his gigs—this ruse being the most likely reason for the show's title.

Among the sections that most clearly resemble routines are his opener where he feigns indignance that mothers and grannies are reading the zeitgiest erotica Fifty Shades of Grey. Elsewhere he contorts himself around the theme of having an itchy bum. Yes, it is edifying stuff. The audience, however, love it.

Just when you think the hyperactive comic is never going to be able to bring his physical comedy about body matters towards any kind of truth, and therefore go beyond any kind of point, he plucks a home truth from deeper inside our consciousness.

Perhaps the title bears another significance, an inherent warning that this is a performer who could easily become a caricature of himself, but one who has thus far been malleable enough to avoid being so boxed.