Dara O Briain: Craic Dealer

DVD review by Steve Bennett

This is the DVD they tried to ban!

Or at least Tesco refused to stock the title, fearing, bizarrely, that the pun in the title would somehow ‘promote’ drug abuse.

Clearly whoever made that decision - since reversed - was unaware of Dara O Briain’s work. Almost as far from being a shock comic as it’s possible to be, he’s the voice of reason, on stage as he is in the chairman’s seat on Mock The Week.

Little gets past his astute radar... He knows what TV producers are doing when the slip a bit of glamour into their shows as ‘something for the dads’, can spot an underlying tension in a corporate gig, and has no time for the psychics and astrologers peddling their dark-ages bullshit.

This latter provides one of the strongest routines on Craic Dealer, as you might expect from the avowed rationalist, as he sarcastically mocks Sally Morgan’s preposterous act or suggests horoscopes are more evil than you might think – with a routine that takes his argument to an hilarious natural conclusion.

But just because he’s smart, doesn’t mean he can’t be an eejit, as a couple of first-hand anecdotes explain, such as his attempts at surfing or encounters with fans (or otherwise). Such tales are not based on much substance – as opposed to those that prod at superstition or the totalitarian reflexes that the London riots brought out in his supposedly liberal circle – but he has the storytelling chops to maximise the laughs.

Along with his prepared routines, O Briain allows for a fair degree of audience banter in this show. Some of it is a clear extension or set-up to his routines – such as his invitations for unsuitable stories for toddlers to act out in place of the Nativity, or suggestions as to how to see off a burglar – but the ‘what do you do...’ section near the start allows for some extended riffs into almost Ross Noble-like flights of fancy.

This is a different kind of funny than having a well-honed routine, and might bear up to repeated plays less well than the astrology segment, but captures the spirit of a real gig. Unlike some DVD comedians, especially those playing bigger venues, O Briain is keen to fully exploit the intimacy and spontaneity that only a live performance has.

But throughout the show, O Briain demonstrates an ease on stage which means that he never dips below entertaining, and frequently soars way above it.