Edward Hayden is funny.
He's funny in that sharp, fast, cominbackatcha' way that the best stand-up comedians master so quickly. Give him an audience – and he gets big audiences – and he demonstrates two things: one that he is the master of the art of baking, but also that he is master of the art of the retort, the quip, the one-liner.
You heckle this guy at your peril, 'cause he's sharp as Chris Rock.
Yet the public who know him as a cookery demonstrator on television and at festivals and on the radio and through his regular gigs at the ICA's An Grianan centre may not realise that there is, in fact, an Edward Hayden who doesn't toss off two witty quips with every line. That Edward Hayden is the culinary lecturer in Waterford Institute of Technology, the very place where the young man first cut his culinary chops, before heading off to CIT to complete his B.A. and then heading on to do his Master's in higher education.
Ever since his first book appeared in 2008, he has steadily and surely built his public profile, via two more books, and a steady stream of media appearances where he shows that his major qualification is that he holds a Ph.D in making you laugh.
“Doing demos, you need two things: chopped parsley, and icing sugar. Both of them let you cover up any mistakes.” A line like that, so flat on the screen or the page, is brought alive in his routines by his energy, and his sheer enjoyment in performing in front of a crowd. He could be a rapper, and it comes as no surprise that his website is www.edwardentertains.com. But don't let the entertainer fool you: Mr Hayden knows his onions. And his icing sugar.