Dylan Moran was once declared “the greatest comedian, living or dead” by the French newspaper Le Monde, however, as well deserved as the accolade obviously was, the comedian is still very much alive, as his many appearances on tv, film and stand up comedy attest.
The Irishman is a skilled actor who has given winning performances in a number of TV sitcoms including How do You Want Me and Black Books not to mention in movies like Notting HIll, Shaun of the Dead and the recent Calvary. Nonetheless, Moran’s real forte remains standup, where he can flex his finely tuned sense of the absurd and the outlandish.
Dylan Moran is much more than just another competent standup – he is an exceptional one. Indeed, the irishman is one of the few comedians on the circuit today who can elevate the practice beyond the mere reciting of jokes into something much more akin to an art form. Moran has a poet’s sharp ear for language and the instinctive knowledge of how to stitch words and phrases together to produce dazzling new forms.
Take this couple of sentences, from his tour:
“Im terrible. I have piles, my skin is falling off in huge lumps, I live with an old woman I don’t really know, underground. We suck stones for money”.
The language is beautifully descriptive and there is a lyricism too. The Irishman’s shows are full of such descriptions, tossed out casually between punchlines with the nonchalant air of a prize painter. Perphaps this is why Moran has often been likened to that other famous Irishman, Oscar Wilde. Certainly both men share a love of the language and its ability to dazzle.
However, where Wilde was merely witty Moran is often sidesplittingly funny. Take this example from his Monster tour:
“you measure what a good time you had by how much it fucks you up; you go out tonight, get ripped, get shitfaced. You’ll wake up tomorrow and somebody will talk to you and ask, “How was last night?” You’ll say, “It was fantastic! …I can’t see. No sens— no feeling, nothing, no sensation down the left side of my body. Oh! I can’t even form sentences! You should’ve come; you would’ve at least lost an ear!”
Now, in the Black Books’s comedian’s new show, Moran offers another helping of his own unique take on love, politics, misery and the everyday absurdities of life – all delivered with his characteristic wit with and poetical eloquence.
Dylan Moran said: “It’s dinner time in the monkey house, and I’ve got the spoon”
**** “Trumping Shakespeare, he reduces life to four ages: “Child, failure, old and dead”. Faced with one-liners as killing as that the world suddenly seems a better place.” The Telegraph
**** “His comedy takes on an existential dimension, as tubby, nicotine-starved, emasculated Moran comes to represent the struggles we all wage for meaning and connection” The Guardian
**** “High-octane riffs from Irish master of grumpiness…spellbinding” Evening Standard
**** “In his heightened ideas and vocabulary, Moran compulsively swerves clichés as he builds up layers of laughs… funny and fascinating, and utterly deserving of his place in the modern classics’ The Times
More information about Dylan Moran can be found here.
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