Tragedy Plus Time Out Now! – Newsletter Dec 2025
Hey you! Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter. First one! Isn’t this exciting?
So what have I been up to? It’s been a busy couple of months. I’ve been bouncing all over the country doing various comedy clubs doing a mix of old and new material. After a pretty long tour of a show that, as those of you who have seen it will know, was fairly emotional, it’s been nice to get out and just do some bright and breezy sets again. I just have 2 more of those before the end of the year, Stratford upon Avon on the 11th and Dewesbury on the 12th, then I hang up my microphone for Christmas.
I also popped up to Glasgow to record a comedians special off BBC’s “Bridge of Lies”. Can’t say how we did, but we did well! The most exciting part of the day was when I got to meet Athena from Gladiators which impressed my teenage sons no end.
I also recorded a couple of panel shows for Radio 4: Frank Skinner’s “One Person Found This Helpful” and Chris McCausland’s “You Heard it Here First” both of which were heaps of fun.
The big news is that by the time you read this, my latest stand up special, “Tragedy Plus Time” will be available to stream on my website at edbyrne.com. After touring it for over 18 months it’s finally time to release it into the wild. It was recorded at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre back in May and if you know anybody who might want to watch it, please steer them towards it.
The bad news is it’s not free. The good news is, that means you can buy it for somebody for Christmas! And you can get it here.
I’m working on making all of my previous stand up specials available on YouTube.
They’ll be up on my Channel over the course of the next few months so you might want to give that a subscribe at youtube.com/@mredbyrne.
That’s about it, professionally. I’m working up new material for the next tour which will be happening from Jan 2027 onwards. Hopefully there won’t be any material about family deaths in it but addressing the subject of having a cat put down is looking increasingly likely. Current subject matter I’m looking at includes: Everybody’s constant desire for feedback, the ever changing definition of the word “woke”, and having to develop an interest in sports your kids play despite a hitherto lifelong aversion.
That’s about it. Hope you’re well. Are you watching Pluribus? It’s good isn’t it? I had a thought about it, though. Tell you what, I’ll sign off and continue this thought below. I don’t want to spoil it for people who aren’t watching yet.
Right. One more thing. I’m not really on Twitter/X anymore. I do lurk around on Instagram a bit. I’ve never used Facebook except to cross post the stuff I put on Instagram. If you want to hit me up on social media your best bet at the moment is Bluesky. I’ll be there until the owner starts calling for race wars in the UK, then I’ll probs jump ship from there as well. OK, cheers.
Ed
So, Pluribus.
Loving it. I just had a thought about it, though. Do you remember when Breaking Bad came out and people really hated Walter’s wife, Skyler? Like, really hated her. Hated her so much that the actress who played her, Anna Gunn, wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times about the online hate she received just for playing her. Fans thought she was ungrateful for the life Walter was giving her and all the stuff he had done for her? They despised her. They hated her more than they hated Jesse Plemons’ character, and he killed a kid. I think some of them thought she was standing in the way of Walter White becoming everything he could be? It was crazy. Aside from the fact that having a character stand in the way of a protagonist doing what they want makes a show more entertaining, the idea that a suburban housewife should just suddenly be delighted her husband has become a drug kingpin is patently ridiculous.
Anyway, considering that backlash, I think it’s interesting that Vince Gilligan has said to himself, “You know that thing that some people hated about Breaking Bad? Let’s make that the entire plot of the next show.” The whole premise of Pluribus is that everyone is happy apart from the main character and she wants to drag everybody back to the miserable status quo they had before and out of the blissful contentment they’re trying to enjoy now. The whole world is Walter White and Carol is Skyler. It just seems a bold move. Fair play to Rhea Seehorn for pulling it off. Anyway, sorry if I’m actually the millionth person to voice that opinion, but hey, it’s my newsletter.
Ok. Bye
Filed Under: News, Tragedy Plus Time