19 April 2007

Canberran's Self-Loathing and Dylan Moran

| johnboy
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A friend gave me a ticket to see Dylan Moran at the Canberra Theatre last night. That lead to a faux pas in the foyer when I looked up over my champagne and asked “So… who are we seeing tonight?”. There was a collective drawing in of breath across a large radius.

So there was a full house of serious Dylan Moran fans, almost all of whom would have expressed their disdain for commercial television if given half a chance. A great number of them gave every sign of not getting out much. But they came to see a man who does get out quite a lot talk about it at length.

There were signs all over the Canberra Theatre (still lacking carpet after the floods, how long does it take??) warning that Dylan Moran was going to smoke on stage. Exactly how many people would see the sign and go home remains unknown, but there didn’t seem to be any empty seats when he started out.

Wreathed in smoke and expertly sucking on his cigarette while drinking red wine with the same hand he proceeded to devote a huge chunk of his show into bagging out Canberra, and Canberrans, despite admitting that he’d spent no time getting to know the city at all. The interesting thing is the audience loved it.

“Beat us”, “beat us more” they seemed to cry. Proving Moran’s point that most of all we want to be noticed for anything at all. All this mocking of our hick nature came from an Irishman who lives in Scotland, not exactly the gleaming centres of the world either.

Before the Moranistas drown me out I have to say I enjoyed the show once he got the Canberra bashing out of his system. While mostly it gave the impression of being an impromptu drunken rant, it was a very funny impromptu drunken rant with some interesting insights along the way.

After the show maybe 15 of the packed house made their way to the Phoenix, Dylan would have been very disappointed by the rest of you. If he cared at all, he’s playing in Tasmania tonight.

UPDATED: NowUC’s Peta Compton really liked it.

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Dylan Moran plays Canberra again next Saturday.

I’ve got front row seats 🙂

http://www.nccc.com.au/whats-on-canberra-events/dylan-moran/

That show last night was very ordinary. Who cares about the Canberra stuff – I’m sure he bags everywhere he is. He just seemed confused, lost the plot several times and seemed very happy to finish, by the way he kept on checking his watch. He brought a cheat-sheet on for the second half and then failed to follow it if it said anything other than men are stupid and women are manipulative and vain.

the entire 1st half of show was Canberra bashing, but who amongst us couldnt string 1/2 hr of canberra abuse together? was a bit too easy.

he is a bit like a relaxed Bill Hicks (also, more alive, tho Bill seemed more alive whilst actually alive) JB also got a beer related heckle in well not really a heckle, more a bone than abuse
Its the Germans I feel sorry for…

i thought he was very average. the first half, bagging out the provincialism of our fair city was lame, while the second part was a little better [want to smell my elephant?], but overall, for someone i went along to see with high expectations from his brilliant ‘black books’ (and the delicious tasmin greig), he was meek and only had a few moments of quick wit to enjoy.

stick to the dvd – its cheaper!

A large part of his act is trashing any city he happens to be in.

He looks much taller on TV.

I was a bit dissappointed thought the TV special was a lot better paced with a lot more material -he might have been having an uninspired night after all, he was in Canberra.

Do I like rice?

The show was excellent – even with the Canberra bashing (at least he was funny unlike 90% of the usual wankers taking a shot).

Makes me wonder what material he uses in the 1st 1/2 of the show in Melbourne / Sydney (perhaps still more Canberra bashing?) 😀

And I’m guessing he backs off when they stop laughing.

Woody Mann-Caruso4:33 pm 18 Apr 07

If it matters, he bags everywhere he goes, including his native Ireland.

Monster? He wasn’t quite as ranty as monster but it was just as good. There was only one repeated joke that i noticed. The one where he felates a smurf. He did a lot of mum/dad/family stuff which was priceless!

Absent Diane4:09 pm 18 Apr 07

I want to shave off your beard, nail it to frisbee and fling it over a rainbow.

Booka – was it as good as his dvd?

By the sounds of things most people here are self-loathing!

Who the fck is this bloke?

i ate your bees

The show was so good. Oh for f*cks sake… a bit of self deprication never hurt anyone. Lighten up mate.

Absent Diane3:24 pm 18 Apr 07

yeah I rate blackbooks up there with the best english humour.. it helps that bill bailey and dylan moran are two of the funniest standups in the world at the moment.

You need to see Black Books. One of the best comedies to come out of the UK in recent times.

Absent Diane2:18 pm 18 Apr 07

i missed this show 🙁 – Dylan Moran is great.

Who the **** is Dylan Moran?

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