AN AWARD-WINNING comedian will be coming to Caerphilly as part of his huge UK tour next month.

Ed Byrne will be performing his stand-up show If I’m Honest at Blackwood Miners Institute on Tuesday, March 1. The Irishman will explore a father’s sense of responsibility, what it means to be a man in modern life, the frustration of middle age and if he possesses any qualities worth passing on to his sons.

“I do genuinely annoy myself,” Mr Byrne said. “But the thing of your children being a reflection of you, gives you an opportunity to build something out of the best of yourself only for you to then see flashes of the worst of yourself in them. It’s a wake-up call about your own behaviour."

“Self-aggrandising humour is a lot harder to pull off than self-deprecating humour,” he added. “A lot of people get really annoyed when Ricky Gervais is self-congratulatory. I always find it very funny when he accepts awards and does so in the most big-headed way possible. I think it’s a trickier type of humour to pull off, talking yourself up in that way.

“So no, I don’t think I’m being massively hard on myself. The fact is when you’re the bloke who is standing on the stage with the microphone, commanding an audience’s attention, you’re in a very elevated position anyway.”

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The tour dates – which kicked off on Wednesday, February 2 and run until Sunday, July 31 – will be the first time Mr Byrne has taken to the stage properly in 18 months. He has done a few socially-distanced gigs and some Zoom shows but cannot wait to be back on the stage and touring properly.

He said: “I’ll have to see what still works and what doesn’t. I’ve missed doing stand-up the most during this lockdown. No-one told me ‘you’re not going to be touring for 18 months’ or I would have planned it better.”

Ed Byrne has been a household name for more than two decades after bursting onto the scene 25 years ago with The New Lad. Aside from numerous stand-up tours across the UK, he is a regular on Mock the Week and The Graham Norton Show.

He has also co-presented Dara & Ed’s Big Adventure and Dara & Ed’s Road to Mandalay. He has appeared on Top Gear and on The World’s Most Dangerous Roads. He also used his experience as a semi-professional hill walker and humanist on BBC2’s The Pilgrimage.

Ed Byrne will be bringing If I’m Honest to Blackwood Miners Institute on March 1. Tickets are available here: https://blackwoodminersinstitute.com/ed-byrne-if-im-honest-rescheduled

He will also be at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on March 26. Tickets are available here: https://www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk/whats-on/comedy/ed-byrne-if-im-honest-rescheduled/

All existing tickets for the original dates of the tour remain valid for the new dates.