Edinburgh Festival Comedy: 10 Questions With Jason Byrne

'In Edinburgh, I Will Be Mainly Running And W**king'

He's back at the Edinburgh Festival! And now he's a Sony Award-winning radio star! Yes, the marvellous Jason Byrne is heading to the Fringe - but not before he answers our 10 quick questions. Oh, no...

Pitch your Edinburgh show in 25 words or less.

Empty room, fill room, wait, clapping, on stage, talk the funnies, do the funnies, laugh the people, leave the people.

Your best Edinburgh moment?

Jumping off the side of Arthur's Seat while holding a bed sheet above my head, and achieving lift of exactly two seconds. Sprained my ankle, too. Not landing - I slipped on a dead bird on the way back home.

And your worst?

Making a man cry in a box while I dragged him around in it, making him pretend he was five. He was quietly crying for all the wrong reasons.

You've got one hour free in Edinburgh - what do you do?

Get in a taxi, go to the dry ski slope, taxi back, into the Commonwealth pool, out of pool over to The Meadows for a coffee, relax with the other five minutes reading a page of a book.

Which Edinburgh landmark/venue/place would you give a five star review to?

There’s a fantastic step that lives at Cowgate - it's in the lane where the Gilded Balloon used to be before it burnt down. The step has a lovely curve where people have stepped, slept and drank on it. So my five stars go to all the old steps of Edinburgh - they’ve more stories in them then Dame Barbara Cartland, and she’s dead!

Give us a secret Edinburgh tip!

Don’t look people in the eye for too long outside the shopping centre in Leith.

Deep-fried haggis or deep-fried Mars bar?

Mars bar for sure, the tasty melted chocolate, with the smooth hot toffee, followed by the severe heart attack.

Kilt or trousers?

Kilt.

Arthur's Seat or Arthur Smith?

Hard one to pick, as they're very similar: they've both been in Edinburgh for roughly the same time, both prone to a bit of an eruption, and a lot of people have been up and down the two of them. But Arthur's Seat can’t fit in a pub for a pint, so I pick Arthur Smith, a great man for a pint because he can fit in a pub.

Complete this sentence: “In Edinburgh, I will be mainly...

...running and wanking.”

Jason Byrne’s show People’s Puppeteer is at 21.20 at Venue150 @ EICC, 1-12 August. Find out more and book tickets here.

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