Comedy Festival 2017: Ringmaster Jason Byrne is the king of having fun at other people’s expense ★★★★½

RIFFING off the audience sees Jason Byrne at his best, and whether it’s making them dance on stage or act like horses, he makes it look completely effortless and always fun.

IN less capable hands it could be a disaster, but Jason Byrne is the king of audience recruitment.

He’s the ultimate puppet master/ring leader, manhandling blokes onto stage, continually singling out audience members (two people with broken legs in the front row on this Friday night), badgering latecomers and generally having fun with people at their own expense.

Riffing off the audience is Byrne at his best, and whether it’s making them dance on stage or act like horses, he makes it look completely effortless and always fun.

It’s been two years since the loved Irishman was in town, and his reliably brilliant brand of humour has been missed.

Comedian Jason Byrne has a show called Propped Up. He is hiding ducks all around the city for people to find for free admission to his show. Picture Rebecca Michael.

Between Propped Up’s madcap audience stuff (which makes every show unique), there’s some stand-up — like his Bear Grylls approach to performing in the bedroom and appearing on The Graham Norton Show with a kooky Lady Gaga and the “miserable” Gwenyth Paltrow.

He goes on to hilariously explain — through Coldplay’s music — why the band’s frontman Chris Martin is monumentally happier since his conscious uncoupling with Paltrow.

As the show’s title suggests, he uses a lot of props on stage. You may never look at an accordion and a xylophone in the same way.

Byrne barely draws breath all show. An hour seems barely enough. Welcome back.

The Forum, corner Flinders and Russell streets, until April 23.

Buy tickets here