ONE of the great stand-up comedians, Ed Byrne, is performing at the Edinburgh Fringe and we've got a pair of tickets to give away.

The Irish funnyman – who will also bring his Tragedy Plus Time tour show to Dunfermline in November – is in the capital for the month-long festival and you can win briefs for the Wednesday, August 16, gig in our competition.

His latest show, his 14th, is at the Assembly Rooms on George Street and taking him into difficult territory for a comedy show – mining for laughs the most tragic event in his life, the death last year of his brother, Paul.

Ed admitted: "It’s something of a departure and I’m slightly worried about that.

“I’ve never really had the desire to write a show that had an overly serious element to it.

"I got a lot of five-star reviews on the last show (2019’s If I’m Honest), but some four-star ones that opined, ‘Well it’s funny, but that’s all it is…’, as if that’s not enough these days.

"Frankly, just being funny is a furrow I’ve been happy to occupy. But this new show features some heart-wrenching, soul-bearing stuff.”

That much is indisputable. For Tragedy Plus Time, Ed bravely ventures into the world of grief and loss, a decision prompted by the passing of his younger brother Paul, aged just 44, in February 2022.

“I was in two minds about whether to do a show of this nature,” he explained.

“Then I decided this was the subject I was going to tackle but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it.

"Once I started down that road, that was it. Then my main worry was, how funny is it going to be and is it going to work?”

The first time he performed the new material, it lasted over an hour which he deemed too long.

“I had to decide whether to cut funny jokes or material that’s meaningful, " Ed said.

"That kind of decision was new to me and what’s really annoying is that the one person I would have asked for advice on that is the guy the show’s about.

"It’s like when you get dumped by someone and you’re heartbroken. The one person you’d usually want to talk to about it is the very person who dumped you."

He continued: “I’ve spoken to people who worked with Paul, who was a comedy director, and they’ve said that his thing was, ‘You can be as emotional as you like and as serious as you like, but there has to be a joke’.

"So the idea of saying something purely for the emotional gut punch was off the table.

“Obviously I don’t want the whole thing to be an onslaught.

“That’s partly because of the digressions and that’s why they’re there.

"But they also illustrate how grief works in that you can still have a good time, you can still be happy, you can still have a laugh about other things and be frivolous.

"But grief is always there waiting for you when you’re done with being silly."

Ed continued: “The show does elicit a very pure emotional response in the audience.

"There’s something about the fact that when somebody dies, everyone else carries on like nothing’s happened.

"Because nothing has happened to them. So there’s an anger in grief, too… how can everyone else carry on as though nothing has happened?”

Ed candidly admitted that mining his family’s bereavement for comedic effect would challenge his performing skills – and emotional bandwidth – in a unique way.

“Death is universal. We will all lose someone. So the best thing to do is laugh at it,” he said.

“Although I was aware, when I was first writing and performing this new show, that there was a danger I might, you know, lose it onstage.

"I did a work-in-progress at the Museum of Comedy and there was an audible crack in my voice.

"On the third performance I did actually cry on stage, and I’m sure for anyone who was there (assumes a very theatrical voice ‘it was a very powerful experience’.

"But I don’t want it to be the sort of thing where I rip my heart out and stamp on it for the audience’s delectation.

"I’ve been able to throttle back my emotions and keep them in check.”

The concept that comedy is 'tragedy plus time' is credited to Mark Twain – Ed said there's no proof the American humourist actually coined it – and raises a question.

“Is it OK to talk about this stuff? I’d say this. Every night hundreds of people who didn’t know who Paul Byrne was will leave the theatre knowing who Paul Byrne was," Ed explained.

"I’m happy with that and I think I give a good account of him on stage.

"I wouldn’t say he’s up there with me every night, but he’s there every time I think about the show, and I’ve got to make sure I do right by him.

"I said to the audience in one of the early previews, ‘Yes, it is sad. But don’t worry because the show is funny. Because believe it or not, I’m actually quite good at this.’”

Ed Byrne's Tragedy Plus Time show is on from August 3 to 13, and 15 to 27, at 9.30pm. Suitable for those aged 14-plus.

See edfringe.com for ticket details.

To have a chance of winning a pair of tickets for the show on Wednesday August 16, just answer this question: Who is credited with coining the phrase that comedy is tragedy plus time?

Email your answer, along with name and address, to editorial@dunfermlinepress.co.uk with Ed Byrne Competition in the subject box. Entries must be received by August 10.