voice of reason : dara o'briain live review

i was so excited to finally be able to watch dara o'briain live - mainly because he's absolutely amazing with live audience interaction and that's what you want to see, every show is distinctly different because he riffs off the audience.
my first experience was binge watching all of his live DVDs, and he holds a very special place in my heart because he never plays on obvious stereotyping about men and women, and uses cheap tricks (that occasionally fall into the problematic) which happens to a lot of comedians (such as ross noble or paul chowdry). his flair for audience interaction is one of the best, and his energy is always engaging.
his work on mock the week as well, is definitely amping up everyones energies and directing it, so he's both earnest and very engaging in all aspects of his work.

unfortunately, due to my bad timing i wasn't able to get the front row seats - which is honestly my dream if i was to ever go to a dara show again, because that aspect of engagement honestly would just be incredibly fun, and a dream come true. Never the less, as you can tell, my seat wasn't all bad.

So how was the show? 

the beginning of the show was great, he came out with a ton of energy really rearing to go. he mentions that he's not quite sure why some of the people are watching, as he isn't particularly popular in australia because nothing he does is ever aired here, and it just gives me a little reminder that, a lot of the shows are supposed to be broader so that people who haven't experienced his material before or know who he is are given like, a good enough introduction to him AND his material. for me, it's a bit like redundant territory but a necessary evil, not everyone obsessively watches UK panel shows like i do, so it makes sense that he has to adjust it. 

To his eternal credit, he busts out a lot of really topical/relevant anecdotes and little jabs that he managed to research and deliver really well - like VIP clubs on every corner, the lock out laws, brexit and aspects about the australian government and that was really hitting it out the part. the man sitting next to me was roaring with laughter - he definitely loved that part and the energy of the show was really good, the response of the audience was really great, especially his non-interactive material about his kitchen island and the builders who never know when to come - I think the general feeling of the show was pretty spot on. 

unfortunately, where he starts to stumble is with his designated audience interaction time. the few people sitting in the front row had absolutely no intention of interacting with very little quippy moments, and at one point it was very evident that the lady he was asking questions to, did not understand his accent/his questions as she waited at least 5 seconds before replying and he had to repeat himself a few times. one of the worst moments was, when asked "what do you do" she pointed to her husband and after a pause replied, "im his wife."

at some point he also tried to find the 20-something in the front row, asking if she owned a house, and her reply was, pointing to her husband and saying, 'i'm married and i have a husband'. 

the general, dislike and unfortunately, pretty boring front row meant that the high paced momentum of the show gets bogged down with the almost ten minute section dedicated to riffing off the audience.  at some points, he points out how extremely boring they are, but it doesn't quite fly and everyone is waiting for him to whip out the 'the funny' and he points out that they don't find this amusing in the least, and the response isn't a huge amount of laughter, in which you can tell he's sort of sinking with this ship.
 I don't blame him at all to be honest - it's hard to be funny when none of them are responsive or give any sort of amusing reply, and pointedly look like they aren't enjoying the show, it's sort of like when youre at the bar and everyone goes OH YEAH SHOTS SHOTS, and the few people that are given free shots goes, um no? i dont drink this is ridiculous. to which my response is, get out of the fucking bar and stop ruining it for everyone. i actually felt, bored during that section, and so i was a little underwhelmed and a bit upset that i did, and as a result, he couldn't quite pick back up the laughs from the audience - including the very reactive man next to me- during his, personally, very amusing section about VR and why it isn't used more for pornography. 

he mimes a long sequence about a hostage/wank situation, which is pretty top tier, and ends the first section of the show there. 

as i went by myself to this show, im forced to listen to everyone elses opinions about it so the couple next to me were, not very amused - they reportedly found the wank/vr section hilarious and really well crafted, but their relatives who came along with them were not able to understand his accent, and rated the show a 4/10. a shout out to the man who also called mock the week, "mock of the week", in contrast to a bunch of irish people who were just happy to see another irishman and were evidently, all ridiculously wasted and having the craic. 

the start of part 2 means that this is a new part, but unfortunately the couple in the front row have decided that they don't like being pointed at, and ask to switch seats with a couple from the second row, which is just ridiculous to me. Dara O'Briain comes out again, and makes another note of this, "the audience interaction is over but you've forced me to talk to you again!" - and honestly i just wish he'd not given it more time than he needed to because there was just something that the audience, didn't find tongue in cheek about someone viscerally not enjoying the show. 

he starts again, but he captures the energy better this time, doing a little bit of a section to describing a common technique called "callbacks", especially to those moments in other shows that he's done before, which basically had me laughing ridiculously loudly in a whole mezz section which obviously, hadn't watched his stuff before. 

the section of his callback jokes gets a lesser laugh than i'd expected, like the audience didn't really want to embrace that sort of, self aware, metanarrative of stand up comedy. Personally yeah I really liked this bit - i think it's a cute and really hilarious real life joke. 

he also does a little insert to "warm feet" and visiting the doctors, but this time it hits a little close to home about him saying that he didn't want a full time chronic illness in which i just sat there slamming the, can't relate button - yet the part with "we'll sleep when we're old" just cracked me up, probably one of my favorite moments in the show. 

the last moments he starts intergrating a little bit of ICT in his routine - something unseen thus far, and reminds me a little bit more of what i'd associate with joe lycett and his email/ebay/hacker adventures. he talks about someone stealing his bike, and someone writing fake news articles about him, but to me these parts fall a little flat because his amusements with emails/going undercover aren't deliriously over the top, or as insane as some of the things i've experienced. i do enjoy the dating website pictures, and also the little aspects of continuously building on his little superhero callbacks, "son of ravine". 

one of his most popular parts though, are pretending to leave and coming back for an encore, and was my favorite part, where he talks about going back to australia and reliving his youth, and going to (horrifically) perth, meeting hoards of drunk irish people and going to a strip club and meeting 'daisy the exotic dancer'. 

when he finally does a call back to hitting one boob against the other, it's a great moment, finally the audience gets that reward and payoff that they've been waiting for, and when he rounds about back to the little tent and finishing with gusto, there's a hard earned laugh, because of that tenuous link due to the sort of jam packed -ironic- way he's jammed it in there as a sort of self referential treatment that's lost on this audience. 

for me, i think he could have just ended it without promising the audience that he'd just go with not putting in the anecdote, i personally found it kind of a weak ending and vastly would have preferred if he had just said. anyway yeah this joke doesnt make sense, but IVE COMMITTED GOODNIGHT. 

overall though, a definitely solid addition to his live shows and a fantastic evolution of his work- but most of all i'd love to see this again but on a DVD with a better audience.