We Can Rebuild Him

Jason Byrne is coming to The Whale on July 11th & 12th

With a comedy career that started way back in 1995, Byrne’s Energizer Bunny approach to making people laugh has, incredibly, far from going flat.

After 29 years.

Offstage though, the years are catching up, as his Ironic Bionic Man tour has been highlighting. Among a series of major operations in 2023, Byrne had heart surgery not once, but twice.

“I have six stents in my heart,” he explained recently, “I’ve got a wonky eye – my dad used to call it my bionic eye – and had cartilage taken out of my knee because I ripped it. My left arm was dislocated fully in Australia, I’ve got staples on my lungs, and my balls don’t work anymore because I got the snip as well.”

And yet, there he is, up onstage for two hours every night, giving it his all. And a little more, being Jason Byrne.

With such major health scares, it’s hardly surprising that the Dublin comedian has been feeling nostalgic in recent years, his late father, Paddy, the inspiration for the 2022 tour, The Paddy Lama Shed Talks.

Looking after your mental health has been a major addition to the Byrne menu too, with his Mind Your Loaf podcasts dealing with the simple fact that “everyone’s mental – there’s no definition of sanity”.

Through it all, the man knows that the best medicine for whatever ails you is chuckles.

“It’s always a good idea to laugh in the face of death,” finishes Byrne, “but it’s just as important to laugh in the face of life…”

Jason Byrne hits The Whale on Thursday, July 11th and Friday 12th at 8pm – tickets here: https://whaletheatre.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/873645546