Moran and Morons
Last night Shantoozy and I saw performing at Town Hall as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, that red wine drinking, cigarette smoking, cake and chocolate loving Irish chap from Ireland in Ireland, Dylan Moran.
Here's an accurate description of Dylan's performance style from The Internet Movie Database:
'Moran’s live stand-up comedy is unique in that it merges two strands of stand-up that seemed incompatible for a long time: sharp observational humor, and surreal and fantastical language-based absurdity. On the one hand, he has a clear influence from what could be called an American school of stand-up comedy that is heavily observational. On the other, Moran’s comedy is characterized by a use of language similar to the stand-up comedy of Eddie Izzard and Ross Noble: surreal associative leaps between on the one side observations and on the other fantasies, verbally painting bizarre and absurd worlds, often through a use of stream-of-consciousness narration. His language is often highly poetic, resembling a James Joyce that has had one too many.'
Some morons in the audience may have gasped when he posited that it really wouldn't be all that bad to have sex with one's own mother ("What's the worst that could happen? You might both feel a little embarrassed afterwards."), but Shantoozy & I laughed considerably during his one hour show, and now he's got me wondering, what are the spaces between the teeth of a comb called, and does Batman have nipples?
Here's an accurate description of Dylan's performance style from The Internet Movie Database:
'Moran’s live stand-up comedy is unique in that it merges two strands of stand-up that seemed incompatible for a long time: sharp observational humor, and surreal and fantastical language-based absurdity. On the one hand, he has a clear influence from what could be called an American school of stand-up comedy that is heavily observational. On the other, Moran’s comedy is characterized by a use of language similar to the stand-up comedy of Eddie Izzard and Ross Noble: surreal associative leaps between on the one side observations and on the other fantasies, verbally painting bizarre and absurd worlds, often through a use of stream-of-consciousness narration. His language is often highly poetic, resembling a James Joyce that has had one too many.'
Some morons in the audience may have gasped when he posited that it really wouldn't be all that bad to have sex with one's own mother ("What's the worst that could happen? You might both feel a little embarrassed afterwards."), but Shantoozy & I laughed considerably during his one hour show, and now he's got me wondering, what are the spaces between the teeth of a comb called, and does Batman have nipples?
posted by S. Gregory | 11:43 pm
6 Comments:
Yes Dylan Moran the big star of Blackbooks (co-written by Graham Linehan) which sadly shadowed the Father Ted series which was written by Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews - and for the younger gen made Father Ted vanish, but Dylan is funny like a kind of Pulp modern comedian.
He would of been great to see.
Rups
R: I don't think "Black Books" followed "Father Ted" sadly - I honestly think it was a wonderful next project for Linehan. And I don't see any reason to think "Black Books" made "Father Ted" 'vanish for the younger gen.'. The 'younger gen.' watches the current thing; only a proportion of them also absorbs previous material, and so, therefore, another 'younger gen.' will be more familiar with Linehan's next work than with "Black Books". And on. Regardless, I think posterity will show "Father Ted" and "Black Books" to be equally remembered.
But, yes, I can sort of see the Pulp/ Jarvis Cocker type comparison you make - comedy is always ultimately a personal thing, though - a funny thing about humour is that the universe would probably implode if there were ever one comedian whom everyone agreed was funny.
No I mean Black Books (2000) came after Father Ted (1995) of which most younger folk I speak with today (19-23) have only heard of Black Books which is different in attitude to when I was younger and if I noted a writer was involved in one series I liked, usually I would trace their other works also, but that's just my observation from people I've talked to. I like Dylan Moran, I like Black Books also.
Rups
R: No, I think what's different in attitude is that people of our ilk will search out an artist's other work, while the general populace will not. As I mentioned earlier, the 'younger generation' watches the current thing; only a proportion of them also absorbs previous material. "Father Ted"'s production finished almost 10 years ago, while "Black Books" only finished up 3 years ago; plus, "Black Books", being more recent, has been screened free-to-air more recently, while "Father Ted" has not. These reasons all contribute to the fact that the younger generation is more familiar with the more recent show.
Regardless of all this, as 'they' say, mass debating, I didn't mean to imply that I thought you didn't like Dylan Moran - afterall, you said he would have been great to see - and he was! You may still be able to catch him as I know he's still performing 'til at least tonight; tickets are scarce but you could probably get one on eBay if not from the venue. :-)
Sad to hear that Kurt has passed - must be upsetting to you being one of your favourite writers.
Rups
R: Thanks for your condolances. Yes, it's always upsetting for me when a favourite, yet not personally known, artist dies because, as I see it, the artists one truly clicks with really are friends, just the relationship is a little different.
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