Ed Byrne is one of the festivals headliners and one of the UK and Ireland's most treasured comedians. A career that has spanned three separate decades has seen this self confessed nerd host and appear on countless television shows, and perform to rather large crowds the world over.
A slight affinity with New Zealand seems to have followed Byrne throughout his career as his first taste of any sort of widespread fame came on his first visit to New Zealand in 1997; Byrne became headline news after abusing an "incredibly rude" Auckland barman. On recent tours of his Roaring Forties show in the UK, Kiwi comic Ben Hurley was his support act.
Just like many of us (especially those in our forties) Byrne loves a good rant, his jokes come at rapid pace from his own politically uncorrect life experience. Being a self confessed "miserable old git", since the age of 23, Byrne can now legitimately own that title. Roaring Forties will touch on mid life crises, getting married, and how backward it is to refer to footballers wives as WAGS.