Sullivan & Son: When east meets west

Steve Byrne brings unique background to TBS new sitcom

Byrne’s whole career as a comedian has been marked by risk taking, as anyone who has seen his standup act can confirm. On stage he’s an edgy, fast thinking performer who leads his audiences into every kind of social danger zone and manages to stay very far ahead of their reactions at all times.

“I like taking chances,” he explains. “I like taking risks and seeing what happens. I like sticking with my act too.

“There are times when if I’m the fifth guy up and all the other comedians have talked about views and relationships, it’s nice for me to spice it up. I like to jump into the audience and kind of talk.”

Some of the things he gets into on stage are based on what he rehearsed, but there’s an edge to his show, and there’s a shocking level of honesty.

“Maybe it’s too honest sometimes, but that’s what makes it funny, as well as all the uncomfortableness that can spread around as you do it. I enjoy it though. I like doing anything against the fold,” he says.

One of the most original aspects of Sullivan & Son is the genuinely funny east meets west banter between Byrne’s onscreen mother (played by the note perfect Jodi Long) and her many victims in the bar. Long adds a whole new dimension to the melting pot by reminding us that not everyone really wants to melt.

“My original family is from Co. Wicklow,” Byrne explains. “My great grandfather came over from Ellis Island and switched his surname from O’Byrne to just Byrne. On my father’s side everyone was in the military except for me.

“My father was stationed in Korea during the Vietnam War where he met my mother and they got hitched. They lived in Minnesota for two years and then moved to New Jersey, and I was born the year they moved.”

It was a happy upbringing Byrne says, for the most part free happily free of any major racial harassment or any of the other teenage pitfalls that can haunt you afterwards.

“For me it (being Irish and Korean) was always fun and it was always a plus. I never looked at it as a hindrance or a negative,” Byrne says.

“I mean, when kids are young they’re mean and they’ll say things, but I was always really proud of my mom and my dad. I enjoyed my upbringing.”

Being funny was Byrne’s passport to the adult world, including finding friends and romance.

“When I moved from New Jersey to Pittsburgh I attended Hampton High School and that’s when my sense of humor developed because I wasn’t good looking, I was really skinny, I was awkward, I had zits,” he recalls.

“But I learned that I could make people laugh, and that’s what I did when I was in junior high school. I had a good sense of humor. That was my passport to meet people.”

In Sullivan & Son Byrne is clear about his mission. He just wants to make people laugh. That’s why his mom and dad in the show are broadly drawn caricatures of his actual parents, he says.

​
Nster.com