Ed Byrne at The Lowry 14th March

Ed Byrne brings his Different Class tour to Manchester.

Ten years ago, Ed Byrne won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival and was widely feted as comedy’s ‘next big thing’. But according to the man himself, comedy superstardom didn’t take off in quite the way everyone expected.

A decade down the line, Byrne has completed sell out tours in the UK before jetting off to build up a fan base in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France and Ireland. He regularly appears on Mock The Week, Have I Got News For You and The Graham Norton Show. Critics call him ‘dazzling’ (Sunday Times) and ‘masterful’ (The Scotsman). Yet, despite all these successes, he still doesn’t fit in – Ed Byrne, comedy’s next big thing, is coming to terms with the fact that he will always be ‘that bloke – big enough to release a DVD, not big enough for it to sell very well’.

And it’s not just in comic circles that Byrne struggles to find his place. His brand new tour, Different Class, examines a world full of groups where he doesn’t fit in, from the youth of the day to the elderly, from the working classes to the middle classes, from the crowds at his own wedding.

Despite his self-deprecating humour, it is clear that Byrne is very skilled at what he does. After opening Different Class to an audience of almost a thousand at last year’s Edinburgh Festival, he moved the tour to Riverside Studios in London for five weeks before beginning a national tour. The reviews are out already, lauding him for his perfect comic timing and sharp observational humour.

So no matter what he says, Ed Byrne is a success. Get tickets while you can.