As the father of two adolescent children, Dylan Moran knows all about the ways in which a modern youngster can approach the world through screens and how they connect to each other with technology.
“I think this is a really interesting phase in terms of where we are at in coping with our connectivity and what it means to us and what it’s doing to us,” considers the Edinburgh-based Irish comic and actor. “Everyone is telling their kids off and there’s a fault line which they’re on the other side of. Some of these kids won’t know much else whereas the likes of me know a whole other world and we’re at a loss to try and share that with them.” In his last touring show (Yeah, Yeah), Moran tackled all-day rolling news media, political leaders and national identities, albeit in that idiosyncratic, off-kilter way which, in 1996, helped him become the youngest ever winner of the Perrier Award, at the tender age of 24. For his new set (Off The Hook), his mind is being taxed and comedy muscles flexed over this friction between the generations and the various methods by which we all communicate.
While the comic chosen by the public as the 14th best stand-up ever (c/o a Channel 4 top 100 poll from 2010) is officially on Twitter, he takes little part in the whirl of social media. Instead, he’s perfectly happy to stand back and view the constant ribbing that goes on as merely an updated version of something ancient and deep-rooted. “It’s that thing about us being tribes, living together in family groups and making fun of each other and telling stories about one another. Really, it’s no different to any of that, though back then you could get out of the cave and go or a walk. It’s very hard to get away from it all now.”
Another thing that Moran can’t get away from is having to come up with titles for his stand-up shows. In the past, they have managed to reflect the curmudgeonly persona which he cultivated in TV shows such as BBC’s How Do You Want Me? and his own Channel 4 sitcom, Black Books. In 2006, he gave us Like, Totally and in 2009 his tour was called What It Is, while a year later, he released a compilation DVD entitled Aim Low. He seems genuinely pleased with the multiple meanings behind Off The Hook.
“The first thing that might come to mind is the modern parlance, the youthspeak phrase that’s African-American in origin, for something that’s crazy,” insists Moran. “Another is if somebody has a sense of feeling liberated. And the final, bigger one for me, is about not being available, because in fact, we are all so available to one another all the time. It’s so porous, and this oppression of connection rules us at the moment. There are a few things simmering in that pot. There’s a bouquet of possible interpretations. And yes, I’m using the word ‘bouquet’ as a joke.”
Dundee Caird Hall, March 4; Perth Concert Hall, March 7 www.dylanmoran.com