DARA O'BRIAIN

The Platform, Morecambe Box Office 01524 582803
Thursday 5 May

Reviewed by
Sherry Currington

It seems that Dara O'Briain was quite taken with Morecambe. Not only was The Platform the brightest old railway station he had ever seen, which made him feel like he was busking, but the audience was overrun by mental health professionals, none of whom could think of anything for him to do on his visit.

The evening was fast paced and Dara spoke so quickly that unfortunately I missed a few of the punchlines. It seemed that he was suffering from a mixture of nerves, being thrown off by the brightness of the venue and settling into his routine. The first half of the gig was certainly more of a struggle than the second, after sunset, when Dara was visibly more relaxed. The audience were certainly a constant source of inspiration for ad-libbed material.

Dara O'Briain is a very funny man with an inoffensive charm and he was riveting when tackling difficult subjects like immigration, religion and Britain's presence in Northern Ireland. Surprisingly he was never heckled throughout his act, the first time I've seen a comedian escape the curse of the drunken pests who indulge in such behaviour. When I spoke to Dara he explained that because he spoke so fast there was never a gap for someone to heckle him and if there were, it would be pointless because he would already have moved on to the next joke.

They say the things you find most funny are those you can relate to and for me, that was his anecdote about mothers using strangers to discipline their children. He told us of the time, on a train, when a woman continually pointed at him and threatened her misbehaving son that "this Man' would tell him off and take his sweets away. Eventually Dara got so fed up of being blatantly used in this way that he went over to the child, picked him up and proceeded to scare the living daylights out of him, causing the mother to rethink her disciplinary strategy.

The night was a huge success with everyone except one sad individual who Dara pointed out had not smiled once throughout the show. Despite this the evening ended with an abundance of love for a star turn that was considered, as well as clever, in his observations of the world we live in. Another success for The Platform, then, which has been gracing us with some fine comedy recently. Everyone, with the exception of one miserable individual, had a good night.

Dara's talent is obvious and he is making the big time, if the amount of television work he has in the pipeline is anything to go by. He will host Have I Got News For You for a fourth time and is a guest on the forthcoming series of Room 101 and a new show called Mock the Week (the title speaks for itself). He stars in an episode of Jack Dee's Live at the Apollo and to cap it all he adds acting to his formidable array of talents in ‘Three Men in a Boat' (based on the novel by Jerome K Jerome), appearing alongside Rory McGrath and Griff Rhys Jones.

Good luck and God bless Dara O'Briain.

Photo by Sherry Currington