Comedy In Solitary: We Interrogate Shane Daniel Byrne + Special Performance

A year and a half ago, Shane Daniel Byrne, was asked to take on the role of a stand-up comic in a play. He was a stage actor, at the time. His performance shone so brightly that it prodded him in a different direction. Soon afterwards, he was booked to perform at Vodafone Comedy Festival, alongside many weighty names. The following year, he earned the second-place accolade at the prestigious, 'So You Think You’re Funny' contest, the finals of which are run in conjunction with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.

When the coronavirus pandemic extended its petrifying reach to Ireland, and grounded us all at home, Byrne initially found an alternative platform in social media. Using his acting skills, he embodied and shaped colourful characters: from TV newsreaders who insisted on an exaggerated pronunciation of the word Taoiseach, to a Dublin, middle-aged mum who videos her middle-class woes in her garden for her daughter Ciara in isolation.

Byrne’s online videos were popular, gaining him new followers “who were following me because I was a comedian not because they were my friends.” One day, however, as the pandemic raged on, Byrne realised the inherent cruelty of the crisis in full and stopped posting.

These days, he ponders whether the post-pandemic comedy scene will devour its underdogs, as he tells Hot Press.

Has your life as a comedian changed as a result of the pandemic?

Well, I’m kind of a new comedian. So, I wasn’t getting on stage every single night of the week. It actually feels normal, just staying home, like everybody else. At the beginning, like a lot of comedians, I made lots of online content. Every time there was something big in the news, I would make a video in response to it – not directly responding, but about what was going on. I was doing impressions and characters. I’d never done characters before in my stand-up. I would have done voices every now and then, but no characters. So, I was trying to do that now, and my videos did quite well. But then I just grew tired of it.

Why?

It became sadder and sadder. I felt very anxious at the beginning of it. And then things became sadder as more people started to die, and I thought about the way people died, and how they can’t even have a funeral, and I realised how sad and cruel that was. I think after that, I was like: it’s harder to do jokes. I don’t like coronavirus jokes. Someone sent me some WhatsApp video of a man singing in Irish about the origins of corona, but I don’t think that’s funny. I think how families are behaving in this crisis – that is funny to me. But I don’t want to poke fun at something miserable.

So, you won’t be making jokes about the virus even when you’re gigging again?

I think you have to find some way of doing it then. I think comedy, or theatre or visual arts, it needs to be about a world that is continually changing. I mean, I won’t be getting up there saying, ‘Oh sure look, we’re not social-distancing anymore’. But it can’t be ignored.

So how are you finding life indoors?

We had moved house just the same week that schools closed. So, we're quite lucky. We live in a little cottage, and for the first time, we have a small outdoor space. I think if I didn't have that, I'd go mad. I found it very hard at the beginning. I was having all the usual first-world problems, like thinking: 'I can't live in a box for a month'. But now, I'm just used to it. I'm like, ‘`Okay, right; this is how I live now'. I feel privileged that I don’t have kids. I think it would have been harder. It's just the two of us, my partner and I.

What do you miss most about the outside world?

I miss stuff like going for a coffee and bumping into people, because Dublin is such a small city that you bump into people all the time, even people you've been trying to avoid (laughs). And I miss things I wasn't even doing before the lockdown, like going for a swim. I'm dying to go for a swim. I think I want to do it because I know I can't, you know what I mean?

Will the comedy scene change after the pandemic?

I think in the beginning everyone wants to get back as quickly as possible. It would be sort of a pecking order. I think to myself, am I ever going to get a slot again?

Are you saying that more prominent names will be prioritised?

Yeah, I mean they have all lost their income, but they will be the quickest to get back up and get gigs again. But the smaller comedians, the new comedians, the mid-career comedians: it is going to take a long time for them to climb back up. I think club owners should think about smaller comedians too when this is over.