Marriage proposals, fainting audience members and hernias – it's all part of the routine for Ed Byrne.

The Irish funny man is back in New Zealand and currently touring his new show Roaring Forties, which he will be performing at the Baycourt Community and Arts Centre next Tuesday night.

Irish stand-up comedian Ed Byrne will be on stage at Baycourt Community and Arts Centre next Tuesday night. Photo: Supplied.

The 43-year-old stand-up comedian is a regular visitor to our shores, and has been in the country since late April.

During this time he's performed to loving crowds, hosted the Old Mout Cider Comedy Gala in Auckland and Wellington, as well as getting out and enjoying New Zealand's great outdoors.

'I went heli-tramping the other day,” says Ed speaking to SunLive from his hotel in Blenheim. 'I've been what I call ‘rescued in reverse' in the Tararua Ranges.

'I was dropped by helicopter onto a mountain and then walked back, which is very decadent and glamorous and created a ludicrously large carbon footprint for a walk.”

Ed's looking forward to coming back to perform in Tauranga next week and says on his list of things to do while here will be to walk to the top of Mauao again.

'I would be very surprised if I did not get to the top again,” he says. 'It's the traditional thing for me to do.

'Many years ago when I was there I bought a pair of trainers that I subsequently ran the Dublin City Marathon in. So there's an interesting fact.”

Known for his acerbic wit, withering rants and unrivalled observational humour, you'll get all of this and more during Ed's latest show.

It doesn't differ in tone or style from his earlier work and Ed says the theme revolves around 'the fact that I'm in my 40s and I act like more of a dick than when I was in my 20's.”

'Because it's more fun,” he elaborates. 'People are thrown by that, it really startles people when you act like a crazy-person when you're a grown up.

'People kind of expect you to act like a bit of an a***hole when you're in your teens and 20s, but when you do it in your 40s it's much more powerful.”

One topic touched upon is Ed's propensity for cracking a joke in serious situations, such as during a visit to the doctor ahead of a hernia operation a few years back.

As the doctor pointed out the hernia on the ultrasound Ed asked: 'Can you print that out so I can stick it on the fridge next to the kids. That'd just be funny.

'Y'know - two kids, three ultrasounds, people afraid to ask. Eventually they'd pluck up the courage to say ‘who's that?' and you'd go ‘oh that's Clover the Hernia'.”

Speaking of hernias, during his show in Christchurch earlier this week his medical adventures caused an audience member to faint.

While he didn't go into graphic detail about the hernia operation, he says just mentioning it is enough to push some people over the edge.

Yet it's nothing new for Ed. During a previous 80-gig tour of Britain about 17 people fainted during the routine.

But what was a new experience for the comedian was helping Dunedin man Dan Faulknor propose to his partner Becky Leishout during his show last Tuesday.

Humbly, Ed says he's pleased it worked out brilliantly and adds he didn't fully realise the significance until after the show.

Becky is a huge fan of the comedian and during one of the couple's first dates she popped on one of Ed's DVD for them to watch.

'I know myself what it's like when you decide to show somebody new in your life what kind of person you are.

'For her to have said ‘I'd like you to watch this Ed Byrne DVD with me', that means a lot and it's pretty cool that he popped the question at my show.

'But it was a tricky thing to follow as it happened in the first half. The second half was like ‘ok, now back to me'.”

Ed Byrne's Roaring Forties is on stage at Baycourt Community and Art Centre on Tuesday, May 19, from 8pm to 10pm. Tickets cost $45 and are available from Ticketek at: www.ticketek.co.nz

Watch a small taster of Ed Byrne Live at the Apollo below: