Dylan Moran: pop culture icon, faux-drunk babbler, tousle-faced grump. To a packed Thebarton Theatre tonight, Moran was king.

Even though he ambled shyly on to stage fifteen minutes late, even though the interval seemed endless between the two short-and-sweet acts of his set, even though he blamed us – us! The Australian public! – for the election of PM Tony Abbott, it was impossible to find a stony face in the house.

Sure, some of Moran’s Off The Hook material fell a little short – the audience was shocked and confused by his adoption of a few ‘ethnic’ accents, presented with a tacked-on recognition of the “cartoonish” representations he was making – but largely he enraptured the crowd with whimsy, self-despair and wicked adeptness with words.

Moran’s style of humour – abstract ramblings, bizarre fitting together of things that shouldn’t make sense, calling his audience “hot fleas” and being drowned out in laughter – is reminiscent of Noel Fielding’s babbling brook of nonsense. Their storytelling is quite similar at the bones – after peeling away Fielding’s extravagance and flair for set design – and even their subject matter glosses along similar lines. They also both have a linguistic stick when it comes to “cocktail sausages”, a favourite prop in throwaway anecdotes.

Earlier this year, when Fielding was in town, he was bemused and amazed by his age, constantly proclaiming with disbelief: “I’m 41!”

Tonight, Moran drudged through the trials and terrors of middle age, clinging to the ever-encroaching relief of death. With the weariness of a sodden sleepy loris, Moran crawled towards that blissful end, imploring that everyone be grateful for their forthcoming curtain-calls.

Dylan Moran is only 43.

Comparing the pair (Moran and Fielding) it’s like seeing two fairytale imps taking different turns in an enchanted forest. Moran got the raw, cranky end of that magical mystery deal.

While patiently awaiting death, Moran wrote Off The Hook. The show is structured in two parts (plus an erotic encore), with the first addressing more general topics and the second narrowing in on Moran’s personal life.

His local material was fairly well-researched, rebutting South Australian Abbott-dissenters with prepared “dyed in the wool Labor voter” lines, chatting about the hospital – far too expensive to complete, let alone open, but it’ll be great when it’s finished once we’re all dead – and good-naturedly accepting a heckle presented by a low-flying plane midway through his set.

Although he touched on ‘Boring Old SA’, he did it in style and with fresh imagination, and he didn’t mention serial killers once.

His political material was fairly light, perhaps due to the brevity of the first act, and moved quickly into lamentations on the idiocy of young people when presented with their terrible, middle-aged futures.

Back from the interval, Moran discussed his family life and the husband-and-wife dynamics that have kept his household happily, miserably afloat.

While Off The Hook promised chatter about technology, Moran didn’t labour over this with Franzen-esque derision. He’s no luddite; Moran simply would like to be left alone occasionally.

The show lingered around his “situation” (an overeating binge that escalated to include face-stuffing at the supermarket and cutting the tops off his mismatched socks to keep blood circulating through his calves). With parallels to draw along the over-indulgence of society, his personal anxieties and self-disgust, and an inability for humans-in-general to stop doing things that we know are ultimately (or immediately) harmful, it was a clever line from which to hang his Hook.

Moran’s delivery was at times feverish; his mouth would babble ahead of his brain, and an occasional stumble would see him flounder, wordless, as he (and we) caught up. Sometimes his hands shook as he held the microphone, discussing his weight, his worries, his impending demise.

Mostly, however, he was coyly bright-eyed, ruffling his great mop of hair in the familiar way. He can also still take a heckler down blindfolded, so don’t be doubting the sharpness of his wit.

Middle-aged, old or dead, Moran is a comic you have to see.

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INTERVIEW: Dylan Moran: “Please don’t bring cake”

PHOTOS: Gallery of Dylan Moran live at Thebarton Theatre

Who

Dylan Moran

What

Off The Hook

Where

Thebarton Theatre

When

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Remaining tour dates

Wednesday July 15 – Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
Friday July 17 – Civic Theatre, Newcastle
Saturday July 18 – State Theatre, Sydney
Thursday July 23 – Wrest Point Entertainment Centre, Hobart
Saturday July 25 – Princess Theatre, Launceston
Monday July 27 – State Theatre, Melbourne
Tuesday August 4 – Qpac Concert Hall, Brisbane
Wednesday August 5 – The Arts Centre, Gold Coast
Saturday August 8 – Convention Centre, Cairns
Tuesday August 11 – Entertainment Centre, Darwin
Saturday August 15 – Royal Theatre, Canberra

Photographs

Kristy Delaine | AK Photography. See more.