Monster

Title: Monster
Rating: 4/5
Genre: Stand-up Comedy
Starring: Dylan Moran

And once again I’m breaking my own fictitious mental rules of what should be allowed in order to deliver a review on a comedian I’m sure many outside of the UK will never have heard of. Perhaps better known for his portrayal of ‘David’ in Shaun of the Dead, or that creepy guy who never wore trousers in ‘Run Fat Boy Run,’ nonetheless he is a comedian in his own right, his real life personality reflected heavily in his TV show ‘Black Books.’ An Irish man who drinks too much, chain smokes on stage (in spite of the smoking ban) and succeeds in complaining about everything that annoys him, from the cookery channel, how different alcoholic drinks fuck you over and the pointlessness of rap music.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m not a fan of most comedies. Too many fall into the ridiculous slapstick, filled with over the top characters and jokes whose punch line consists of ‘look how small his dick is,’ laughing at unfounded generalisations or unusual accents, or – god forbid – scripted puns. The kind where someone makes a bad joke and have a set of drums go ‘ba-dum tsch’ whilst they wait for the laughter track to end. It is unfortunate then for me that the majority of tripe being produced is in this same vein, from “Napoleon Dynamite,” to “American Pie,” they’re both as bad as each other. Relying on the same tired overused joke instead actually thinking and being creative, with no sense of wit or comical timing, this is not a problem limited to American comedians (in fact there *are* American comedians I enjoy, Jeff Dunham springs to mind) but rather as a general issue I face.

So what makes Moran so endearing to me is the natural way things proceed. It never feels scripted beyond subjects he wishes to talk about, and his bizarre off-the-wall analogies and explanations, rationalising his beliefs in a rather convincing manner. He is the definition of ‘grumpy old man,’ who hates technology, can’t use the internet and believes in ‘physical education’ of children. He’s like that old guy who is always in the pub rambling incoherently, getting side tracked, allowing his charisma and naturally amusing manner of speaking carry the performance. His ramblings may not always have punch lines but they succeed in remaining interesting, and perhaps most importantly for me, it comes off original. He’s not merely echoing other people’s ideas, re-using old jokes, or spending his time sitting in a room with a pencil scripting jokes to tell, it all comes off fluid.

This is a comedian who seems to have garnered little appeal abroad, and his acting work a poor representation of his comical ability. It is here (and his work in Black Books, which seems like a slightly more drunk of him anyway) that he proves what he is capable of, and I can’t think of a better example of how comedy should be handled.