Just Do It

Steve Byrne

by Ben Kharakh

Thu., May 22, 8 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., May 23-24, 8 and 10:30 p.m.; $15-$30, Helium Comedy Club, 2031 Sansom St., 215-496-9001, heliumcomedy.com

Since his one-hour Comedy Central special, Steve Byrne's been getting a lot more second glances at the airport. Which he's not quite used to. "Do I owe this person money? Did I sleep with her? Did I cut them off in traffic on the way to the airport?" he thinks. But at a recent show in St. Louis, Byrne's realized that from coast to coast, sometimes it's best to just keep walking.

City Paper: What have you learned about America through your travels?

Steve Byrne: I've discovered that people are pretty much the same everywhere. There're a lot of nice people and there're a lot of idiots. Whether they're nice or idiots, though, people have one thing in common: They love to laugh. Fortunately, I'm in that business, so I consider myself very lucky.

CP: What sort of idiotic behavior transcends state lines?

SB: The things that come out of people's mouths shock me. I was doing a show in St. Louis where before I came out to the microphone a guy yelled out, "Pork fried rice!" It was the first thing out of his mouth before I said one word and all I could do was think, "Did he just say pork fried rice to me?" On the one hand, I thought it was extremely racist. But at the same time I thought, "That's pretty damn funny. I can't say a thing about that." I just couldn't believe that someone would see somebody of a certain race and just think, "I'm kind of hungry. I could go for some P.F. Chang's. I'll mention pork fried rice to this person."