LAUGHS OF THE IRISH
DYLAN MORAN OFFERS GOOD OLD-FASHIONED CONNECTIONS
DYLAN MORAN When: June 21, 8 p.m. Where: Vogue Theatre Tickets: $42, voguetheatre.com
It is unlikely you will ever find comedian Dylan Moran having to apologize for being a Twitter twit.
The veteran Irish comedian says that, in his world, social media is for working not spouting polarizing and career-ending opinions and ideas.
“Oh God no,” said Moran when asked about posting his thoughts and ideas online.
“Jesus Christ are you kidding me? You cannot put a price on getting away from all that stuff people do. It’s really an indictment of how lonely we have become, that people are doing this and telling themselves that they have had some kind of a day. What do you do after a hard day’s Tweeting? Jesus.”
Moran’s social media footprint consists of Instagram postings of his drawings and paintings interspersed between tour and show announcements.
An active standup comedian for 25 years, Moran is touring Canada on his Grumbling Mustard Tour, which wraps in Vancouver June 21.
Talk of social media and the swiftness of the negative recourse that can befall a user was front and centre as the Roseanne Barr story had reached full flame while Moran was talking to Postmedia over the phone from his home in Scotland recently.
“Another time when somebody said or did something dumb and you thought it was kind of dumb, well it’s the same but now we have phones and all the other stuff. This used to not be a talking point,” said Moran.
“Dumb is dumb, and it was recognizable. In a way us talking about this is not a story about what is and what is not societally acceptable. That hasn’t actually changed in most civilized places. It hasn’t shifted that much. Bad behaviour is bad behaviour.”
What has changed is the distance that bad behaviour can travel in the blink of an eye or the push of a button.
“We have globalized our gossip,” said Moran.
“I think the essential of the situations have not changed. The event changes based on how many observers there are in a circle around it.”
Moran also sees the swift and sudden extinguishing of the offender as not so much a protector of some moral code but rather a protector of a bottom line.
“It is interesting how it shut down immediately,” said Moran referring to ABC’s quick extinguishing of the Roseanne show.
“That kind stuff use to get more air. It used to have more breathing room at least. But now there is a very, very clear movement against that and what I think there is of interest within in it is a lot of people want to shut that stuff down because they want other people to know that they are putting a lot of daylight between them and what they would have previously, not endorsed, but maybe just looked the other way or tolerated it. But now they’re much more proactive about putting daylight between themselves and that.
“But let’s be honest about it,” added Moran. “They are doing it because they are a commercial asset and they think if they don’t they will lose revenue. That’s why. That’s the prevailing orthodoxy now.”
As for Barr’s racist Tweet about former senior adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama Valerie Jarrett, Moran said:
“Do I think the dumb thing was a dumb thing? I do.”
Moran’s comedy is of the broad existential type. Topics include parenthood, aging and technology.
“One of the things that galvanizes the situation is people are reacting to technology,” said Moran about our current state of constant outrage.
“Everybody is exposed. Everyone can see each other’s colours, stripes, motivations and alliances all across the planet now because we are all lit up by the internet. It is a nervous system for this planet, or however you want to think about it.
“We realize how connected we all are. We’re all exposed, and some groups just don’t like it ; they don’t like the exposure. They don’t like to see how the light feels on them.
“What they should do is get over themselves, because you can’t put this stuff back in a bottle.
“It is a light you cannot turn off,” added Moran.
Part of the problem we are all facing is we have become shut-ins of sorts, he says. We stay indoors with our computers and TVs and when we actually venture out our heads are in our smart phones, and our thoughts are with the people who think like us.
“We are spending time in an environment no healthy animal should be in. No healthy animal should be surrounded by screens all day,” said Moran.
Enter the comedian — ready, willing and able to dim the lights of your daily life and offer up some good old-fashioned connections.
“You’ve got to eat, sleep and be warm and feel safe, and you’ve got to connect with the other human beings. That’s all it is, it is never going to go away,” said Moran.
“People need to connect with other people; they need to check that their experience is communal.”
Moran also has an acting career, with meaty roles in the dramatic film Calvary and the comedy Shaun of the Dead. There was also a popular UK TV series Black Books, which Moran wrote and starred in.
Moran hopes to return to acting with his own shows and has a couple of pilots he is hoping to “hawk somewhere.”
In the meantime, he’s been busy on the Canadian leg of his Grumbling Mustard tour.