It's always an education to see a comic – now a part of the British comedy establishment – performing a gig in his own backyard. And Dara Ó Bríain, at the Royal Theatre in Castlebar, Co Mayo, was just that; he had, as ever, done his homework, immediately throwing in several local references, plus a few more that his Twitter followers would recognise, and told them that returning to his home country on the Irish leg of his Crowd Tickler tour after a few years away from the stage was an education for him too. Ireland is undergoing so much rapid political change at the moment, he said: “It's like plunging into a soap opera you watch only once a year and you go, 'Who's this person, now?'”
Fear not if you will see Ó Bríain later this week in Dublin, where he brings the tour's Irish leg to a close, or from January, when he starts the UK section – there will be many more freshly minted local references each night and nods to the week's news because, as befits a scientist by training, he does his research. He even explains a joke or two – which may not be Stewart Lee-meta, but it's wonderfully knowing and makes the jokes work at another level.
Where else would you hear a gag about the depletion of the world's helium supply?
Ó Bríain starts the evening by talking to the front row, and in Castlebar, as ever, he managed to mine terrific comedy from even the most dull, bizarre or unexpected responses. He's on fine form, even if his conversational style at a gambolling pace means that some jokes – and several asides – can annoyingly get lost in the tumble of words. In an evening that covers a lot of territory, he talks about (among many other things) the disappointment of adulthood, dancing in public, being mistaken for Al Murray and why shopping at Selfridge's in London makes him feel sexually sophisticated.
The comic pleasingly has views formed by astute observation rather than following the crowd: his take on subjects such as pole dancing and sexy lingerie is refreshingly original, while his running gag about high-concept TV shows such as Breaking Bad and The Killing certainly veers from the norm – and where else would you hear a gag about the depletion of the world's helium supply?
He does a brilliant extended riff about doing a trip down the Zambezi River for Comic Relief, in which both he and fellow stand-up Jack Dee were lucky not to lose their lives, and he has some genuinely fascinating – and very funny – insights on why he's not a perfect fit for any show that requires him to go on a metaphorical journey, such as The X Factor, and why he will never do reality programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are? Not being able to cry on cue is the least of his failings, he says.
As the show nears its end, he gives a précis of his interaction with the audience during the evening. It's a trick he's been doing for some years now, but it's still an astonishing skill to see done so well as he mines even more jokes out of what has transpired earlier. A master at work.
- Dara Ó Bríain is at Vicar St, Dublin 27-29 November, then touring the UK from 13 January 2015
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