Charles Hutchinson rounds up three York comedy shows, starting with the 'strange but true' world of lanky Irish comedian Ed Byrne whose voice sounds strangely familiar

ED Byrne has been on the road for so long, his seat belt broke the other day.

Such is the price of the lanky, loquacious Irishman calling his winter itinerary The 100+ Date Tour: his longest trip around Britain and Ireland with a detour to Paris too on his first tour for two years.

On Sunday night, he plays the Grand Opera House, York, and another 23 gigs will follow, before a five-week tour of Australia from mid-May and the possibility of a play at the Edinburgh Fringe in August.

"We knew this tour would be 100 dates when we started," says Ed, who insists there is no chance of Byrne-out. "The hard part is writing the jokes, and once they're written you really want to go out and tell them."

Not everything is a joy.

"Some of the hotels have been a pain in the butt and getting to the gigs can be a pain in the butt," says Ed. To prove the point, he is speaking on the phone - mobile, of course, for the voice of the Carphone Warehouse radio and TV adverts - en route from Maidenhead to Southport. South to North, cross country, on traffic-jam Friday: what joker would come up with such a schedule? Only a comedian noted for his comic diversions.

Ed takes it all on his stride, always rejuvenated by the sound of laughter.

"A good gig is when people come to have a laugh, not put themselves through a miserable experience," he says, as if issuing a challenge to his audiences.

His comedy is rooted in strange but true observations; his style combines blarney with charm and a willingness to take risks.

"I have had a few people walking out," Ed admits. "I'll do 15 minutes before support act David Hadingham comes on, when I'll talk about mobile phones and texting, which may appeal only to those under 35, and then I'll talk about death, and it'll be laced with fairly heavy amounts of swearing, so there will be things that some people may not find funny."

Ed starred in ITV's flat-share sitcom Sam's Game, playing the weedy-looking Alex opposite Davina McCall; he has made appearances on Celebrity Weakest Link, They Think It's All Over, Lily Savage's Blankety Blank and Born Sloppy; and he had a two-week West End run at the New Ambassadors Theatre, but just when his face and mane of hair were becoming familiar, he changed his look.

"The main thing that's happened since I got my hair cut is that people who half knew me don't even know me at all now," he says.

His tour poster depicts him in dark shades, with ruby lips and dark hair, not dissimilar to the Eighties' pop star allure of Dr Robert and Ian McCulloch. "It's a relatively eye-catching picture, and if you have a eye-catching shot you're more likely to make it on to the cover of a brochure," he reasons. "But I've actually shaved my head now. I'm a skinhead."

Born in the sprawling County Dublin suburb of Swords 31 years ago, this son of an Aer Lingus aircraft technician and a lecturer grew up listening to his elder brother's Monty Python and Billy Connolly records. At 18 he moved to Scotland to study horticulture at Strathclyde University, where he hosted karaoke sessions in the students union, made speeches as a student politician and took his first steps on Glasgow's comedy scene. Next stop, London, and an office job by day to support himself while playing gigs by night.

In 1994 he won the New Act competition at Glastonbury Festival and the following year he joined the Young Gifted And Green line-up of Irish comics at the Edinburgh Fringe. His television break came on ITV's The Big, Big Talent Show, and soon he was to be seen on the Jack Dee Show and the Father Ted Christmas Special.

Live work in Canada and the United States, a stream of American appearances on NBC's cult show Late Night With Conana O'Brien, team captaincy on Jo Brand's show Head On Comedy and the title role in Aladdin, ITV's pantomime for Christmas 2000, have all come his way. So too has plenty of television commitments in Ireland, not least the RTE sitcom The Cassadys and Just For Laughs, and he has recorded the feature film RAT and the BBC radio Four play The Pig's Back.

Yet Ed still insists: "I'm not hugely well known over here: people in general seem to know me better for being the Carphone Warehouse voice. I keep being asked if it's me.

"People will come up and say 'Oh you do those, they're really funny' and yet I only did it for the coin, whereas with a sitcom, you do it for your career and it turned out not to do so well!"

As the Carphone adverts testify, Byrne has a voice born for comedy, although even now that seems to surprise him. "I never thought I had a distinctive voice," he says. "I just thought it was quite mumbly and whining."

How wrong he was. Sunday night in York is Byrne's night.

Ed Byrne, Sunday, 8pm. Tickets: £12.50; ring 01904 671818 or Ticketmaster, 0870 606 3595. Warning: this show contains some adult material which may offend.

Updated: 09:15 Friday, February 28, 2003