Dylan Moran: Off The Hook

We suppose Dylan Moran was tired at last night's Off The Hook show. He made comments about his lacklustre relationship with his audience, finishing up his set (including the stale Fifty Shades Of Grey encore) 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Comedy's about give and take, comedians trade on laughs, so when a joke didn't hit home, and the audience didn't just reward him for trying, he became more sullen than usual.

It's not that the material wasn't funny — because it was, often hysterically so, especially when it would lead brazenly into diversions about men and women, his wife, his children, and German shopkeepers, before returning to what could loosely be described as his 'hook'.

It was more a sense of mood in the room, a failure to connect, but maybe that's because Sydneysiders don't want to hear about how cultured Melburnians are, just by default (we're here, aren't we!), or because there was some limitation in scope: another grumpy old man complaining about young people for daring to do something as audacious as be young.

Moran was at his best when his material was fitted towards the moment, all snide Bronwyn Bishop asides and jokes about Tony Abbott's ears, rather than railing against the modern — because it's been done before, and it's been done better, oftentimes by Moran himself.