Dylan Moran
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Dylan Moran

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“I’ve got to ask you, how much domestic support does he actually have?” laughs Moran. “The international reputation that Tony Abbott has is that he’s not a terribly imaginative right-winger who blames climate change on the lesbian Illuminati.”

For fuck’s sake.

“He’s regarded as having his head in the sand. For 20 years Australia had such massive growth,” he notes. “The whole world looks to Australia – especially Europe and America as we’re all allies. Everyone looks to you as a bellwether and an indicator of what the hell is going on, especially when it comes to climate change. To hear now that big business is coming first is pretty ridiculous.”

Another world leader that Moran has shown his disdain for quite vocally is Jorge Mario Bergoglio AKA, Pope Francis, the 266th and current Pope of the Catholic Church who has received widespread media coverage and acclaim for holding much more progressive views than his predecessors. “The only reason that anyone could think someone like Pope Francis is a progressive leader is, because well, look at what you’re comparing to,” he says. “The entire church is pretty damn toxic.”

Returning to Australian shores with his latest show Off The Hook, Moran will once again treat audiences to a sardonic and insightful look into his world. “It’s about family, it’s about getting older, it’s about looking at your kids growing up,” he details of the show. “I’m like anybody else who has children, they become the centre of your life. I don’t ever worry about my health, but I don’t want to die anytime soon because I want to be around to do things with my children.

“When I look at my kids and their generation, I wonder about what sort of world they’re going to grow up into. I don’t think it’s easy for anyone to find their way through the world when they’re 18, 19, 20. It’s pretty scary stuff. You’re being spat out of an education system and your home and into the world been told you’ve got to figure it out. In retrospect I don’t really know how I got it together.”

While family life will take centre stage throughout much of Off The Hook, vitriolic lashings towards world leaders, Americans and Greeks also feature throughout. “It’s also about politics and the world, well, to a degree. To be honest I’m starting to get sick of talking about that sort of stuff, all of the media. Are you actually being informed or are you just distracting yourself from your own life by going ‘Oh there’s been another disaster in another country 1,000s and 1,000s of miles away from me’. Of course it’s interesting and of course important to be connected, but we’re pixelating ourselves with all of this stuff.”

Moran’s return Down Under is his first Australian sojourn since 2011, and it’ll see him perform over 30 shows nationwide (including seven nights at Arts Centre Melbourne’s 2,000-seat State Theatre). However, he’s adamant that no two shows will ever be exactly the same. “I’m still messing around with the show every night, I’m playing it upside down, inside out, throwing out this bit, trying to write new bits,” he says. “I play with my shows until the very last minute I have to put it down. I don’t really want to know how it’s going to be 100 per cent, from A-Z. I never really have with anything I’ve ever done. That’s how it’s been ever since I started. I’m always refining things until it comes to point where I just have to kick it away.”

While Moran is best known for his work as the drunken and cynical Bernard Black in the television show Black Books, his approach to stand-up comedy is far less pessimistic. “I don’t think it’s very useful to iterate an endless tablet of humanity’s ills, woes and faults,” he says. “I’m not saying that everyone has to be an Easter bunny hopping around all time with a lust for optimism, but if you don’t have any hope at all there’s no point in crawling any inch further. You have to have some hope that we’ll find answers to the problems in front of us, or why bother?”

Another lesser known feather in Moran’s bow in his penchant for illustration. “As I’m talking to you right now I’m actually doing some drawing,” he shares.”I have a lot of artwork, and I’ll probably bring out these small books that I’ve made with me and sell some of them at the gigs.” And what are these books about? They’re fables of animals who are having mid-life crises, naturally. “They’re from this world that I’ve developed over the past few years. I’ve had these characters rolling around for about ten years, actually. That’s really all I can tell you just now.”

As we conclude our conversation, I quiz Moran on what’s left to accomplish in his career, and the legacy he wants to leave behind. “I’m not interested in making a mark on the world,” he says. “I’ve never been interested in making a mark on the world. I just want to make things that are good. I know that may sound child-like, but I want to be able to make things that people engage with and laugh with. Things that make people forget their worries, even if it’s just for ten minutes, half an hour or an hour. I don’t care if it’s comedy, if it’s books or if it’s television programs. That’s all I’m interested in doing.”  

BY TYSON WRAY