Dylan Moran - Yeah Yeah Tour

Being a long time fan of “Black Books” and honestly, any of Dylan Moran’s work, the chance to see him at the well known iconic Leicester venue De Montfort Hall venue was something I really couldn’t miss. Having starred along side friends Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in famous comedy films such as “Shaun of the Dead" and “Run Fat Boy Run" the Irish stand up comedian, writer, actor, film maker and artist (My God are there no ends to this mans talents!), now approaching the age of 40 (are we allowed to say this, will we be sued?), I wondered if he was still as razor sharp as ever.

Arriving at the venue at around 6:30 on a nice summers night, looking around there were people coming to collect their tickets hurriedly, or making the most of evening sun before heading in. As the evening progressed, more and more people began to make their way in to the hall until there were hardly any empty seats to be seen (and by the time Dylan took to the stage it was indeed a full house). We were sitting quite close to the front we got a great view of the stage and Dylan’s very own Doodle PowerPoint show (including “Scrambled egg man”- fears nothing but spoons, knives, forks and plates). Then with a dim of the lights and a grand announcement the show kicked off.

At bang on eight the great man him self took to the stage, wine in hand, with the trademarked slightly confused and bewildered look, to a terrific audience reception which he took in typical Black Books Bernard fashion “None of that or any of the others!”. He opened up with the bemused question “What day is it?” before he began to talk about his previous shows on this tour, yet again having a little dig at places such as Hull (“People in Hull are so bored that the queue for the ‘suicide bridge’ is five miles long”), before being brave enough to tackle Leicester. Asking the audience what is good about the place, responses were, ‘We make Crisps’ at which he looked on with a look of abject disappointment, before some one else tried to save the day with ‘The Tigers’, to which he replied in disbelief “You make tigers?” One last try to save the towns dignity came in the desperate form of a shout of “Red Leicester Cheese”, and Dylan’s come back was simply “WHAT! That’s cheating”.

It’s hard for comedians to always come up with shows full of brand new content, as one brave heckler commented on by pointing out a punch line from one of his previous shows, which got a very sarcastic “Well done you have seen my other shows before”, but Moran for the most part had a lot of original new material. The basic rule is, do not heckle Dylan Moran, it can only end badly for you. Despite this minor interruption he then went on to deliver a truly outstanding performance which very memorable and random phrases like “women are like canoes full of soup, it may seem a bit strange at first but sooner or later, everyone will want one”.

All in all for a mere £20 (which is what you could pay for a rather dismal Championship football display on a rainy Saturday), a night at Dylan Moran’s show was definitely worth it. There were no tumbleweed moments, laughter flowed throughout, the audience were captivated and enthralled for the full hour and a half of the shows duration. In short Dylan Moran is the Fizzy-make-good-feel-nice tonic that we all need in our lives.

Review by Brandon