Dylan Moran

Those who expected the surprisingly articulate wordplay of an unhealthy drunken Irishman were not disappointed.

From the gods at Bristol Hippodrome Moran's stage presence last night was still remarkable. When he pauses to cough or drink (red wine) it's really for his benefit, not comic effect. 'I eat chocolate on stage because I can't smoke. I keep eating it, telling myself if I go on long enough I'll reach the good chocolate.'

At this rate I'd give him ten years.

Moran is a genuine wordsmith. His observational comedy reached for metaphors no-one else on the current circuit could possibly invent. He describes a restaurant meal as 'like onions fighting on a plate' and a particular snoring noise as 'like two rhinoceroses f***ing in a large bowl of crisps.'

He rambles, but tells a story of life in 2011 from the point of view of a someone who observes from outside and sounds a little lost. He chronicles the battle between his unreconstructed self and the way he is required to conform. His dinner party food would be 'nice.' 'What is the point of starters? I'd put chocolate bars inside a chicken.'

Many of us wondered how close to the truth the comic character he played in Black Books, Bernard Black, was. It's getting closer by the day.