Dylan Moran stand-up review

Moran more like... totally consistent

REVIEW: Dylan Moran, Like Totally…. Theatre Royal, Winchester
First published 1st June 2006

TICKETS to Dylan Moran's latest stand-up show entitled Like Totally… at the Theatre Royal,Winchester, sold out before they’d even gone on general sale at the box office.

Not surprisingly since Moran is a comedian with enormous appeal. Many people know him through his sell-out stand-up shows. Even more know him from staring roles in Black Books and Shaun of the Dead.

Rarely does a comedian promise so much and consistently deliver. He is a rare thing – a performer who always produces value for money. From the moment his show opened, the audience were hooked.We laughed at the scripted magic of his “You could be in worse places….” and we snorted equally at his
improvised jabs at hecklers and latecomers. His humour was not tasteless, nor deliberately politically
incorrect.

The message was: Take a look at the world and have a good laugh. It was the improvisation that really made the experience special. Dylan Moran can entertain football stadiums of people.

However, at the Theatre Royal, there was a certain intimacy that made us all believe that Moran was speaking to us personally. Parts of his material he'd tailored specifically for Winchester. There were no boring or stagnant parts of the show. He spared no person or nationality when poking fun.

Bursts of laughter and rolls of giggling accompanied such killer lines as: "Speaking in German is like typing on tin foil.” The next moment Moran was poking fun of his own Irish nationatility by claiming: “The Irish
can't look cool. All Irishmen have the same face.” He even targeted my nationality by questioning how
American’s could possibly elect Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of California – although I'm still
trying to figure that one out myself!

The audience was delighted with a double treat, since the back drop of the stage was set with a rolling slide show of Dylan Moran's drawings.

Normally I would have thought his drawings were too simple. However, they had a unique appeal. Each drawing had in-depth subject matter, some disturbing, some humorous. Though his works were simply
child-like line drawings, as a former art student, I found them oddly appealing.

Could it be that Dylan Moran, comedian, will become Dylan Moran, artist?

All in all, the Theatre Royal Winchester proved the perfect venue for the genius of Dylan Moran.

-Tina Hulme