Comedy review: Jason Byrne: Cats Under Mats, Having Chats with Bats

Published on Friday 22 August 2008 21:11

JASON BYRNE: CATS UNDER MATS, HAVING CHATS WITH BATS **** ASSEMBLY @ ASSEMBLY HALL (VENUE 35)

AMONG the roster of high-profile comics on the Comedy Festival bill, Jason Byrne is among the select bunch who don't need to worry what others think of him. The Irishman's name alone has been packing out the huge Assembly Hall regularly this year, and the fans seem to be leaving with an air of cheerful satisfaction. They're getting no more but absolutely no less than they expect from the show. In that respect, Byrne is a bit like a Coldplay album or a big-budget superhero film.

All the trappings of premiership commercial comedy are here, most importantly the kind of effortless technical proficiency that has the laughter flowing freely and openly. By the same token, however, these laughs are comfortable and easily won. Byrne isn't the type of comedian to challenge or to push at the boundaries of the form – or even, it seems, to perform material that is in any way controversial or divisive. That's not a necessity, of course, but it does explain why an hour spent in Byrne's company is both perfectly entertaining and somewhat unfulfilling.

Yet the jokes are performed with skilful, unforced efficiency, and Byrne doesn't shirk from putting himself out there in the firing line. At any point, he might be juggling three or four conversations with random audience members who are unlucky enough to have selected front row seats. He identifies their perceived points of sensitivity (youth and class, in this case) and picks away at them while fending off any heckles that fire back his way.

Yet Byrne isn't cruel with it, more matily impudent. The bulk of the show is a feat of perfectly-pitched audience control. So much so, in fact, that the closing segment about being a husband and father feels almost like a postscript to the main event, albeit one that is battered out with more ruthlessly amusing efficiency than many other comics can muster in a whole set.

A Riverdance-themed finale is pretty corny, although it forms a logical conclusion to all the audience-baiting. Otherwise, Byrne's show reflects its title – it means nothing, but it sure does grab your attention.

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