Dara O'Briain - Crowd Tickler
Mar. 27th, 2015 10:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeLast night we went to see Dara O'Briain at the impressive Leeds Grand Theatre. Being in the upper balcony, we got chance to view the exquisite chandelier at its centre plus from a height you got a greater appreciation of this stunning performance space.
Due to the 7:30pm start, quite early for a gig (something that Dara himself commented upon), we did struggle to get there but Wolfie (who was travelling from work in Doncaster) and I did manage to meet up outside a local Subway, where we had just enough time to pick up a sandwich. They have a new one out called the Pizzola, made with chicken, pepperoni and a tomato-based sauce, and indeed it tasted quite like a pizza and was particularly pleasant. My sister was also due to meet us, this being a birthday present for her, but her train from Sheffield was running terribly late and I had to leave her ticket at the front desk as we took our places. Fortunately Dara was about seven minutes late to the stage and my sister just arrived in time, although for the first half she had to sit on an end seat rather than with us as we were in the middle of an aisle (admittedly only two people in but the ushers refused to let us move them). Bafflingly, my sister rang me during the performance to tell us this, not sure what she was trying to achieve there, but we were reunited at the interval and she sat with us through the second half, after which I had bought her an ice cream.
The show was pretty fantastic, with a stronger end than beginning. Dara was on for two hours overall, longer than many stand-ups and the topics of conversation were the usual fayre from growing up and adulthood to the anthropomorphism of industrial machinery (okay that may not be that standard but the stories of buried machinery were very sad, poor Chuggie). When talking about anthropomorphism and the things children do that adults don't, I thought he may move on to furry but he didn't. However, posting pictures of your penis (one close to the hearts of many furs) and American TV box sets also featured and why Wakefield with just its one Westgate is a lot like Game of Thrones. One of the highlights was the audience interaction from the front row, who all seemed to have prepared comedic material (or improvised it they were that good) to bounce off Dara. Part of it was the usual meet and greet the front row where the comedian talks about professions (and where the audience can act like a "mob" regarding whether they approve or disapprove of someone's career - the Leeds audience really worked with this concept) but when he wanted them to design their own US HBO-style drama it went into realms of surreal fantasy. Neurology and the brain - part of Dara's interest in science - also got mentioned and he got into a bit of a dialogue with my sister who is currently doing a PhD in Alzeimer's research on more than one occasion. She got a round of applause at the end - I'm not sure I could have had such a dialogue, even if it's from behind the darkness of the theatre such is my shyness.
After the gig, we headed for a drink in Friends of Ham before my sister had to get her last train home. We sat downstairs as it was quite busy and I didn't realise there was table service down there, meaning I went up to buy drinks and had to take them all down on a tray. I was just ordering three bottles so I thought I could carry them but they insisted they poured them into glasses, necessitating the tray and resulting in me spilling a load of beer on myself as I headed down the stairs. We got a cheeky nightcap at the end - ordered from the table - and some meat sticks that looked like pig penises before I took my sister to the station after picking up some co-codemol to help resolve my rapidly disintegrating back. It was great seeing my sister again for the first time since January and I'm looking forward to seeing her again for Easter next week.
Due to the 7:30pm start, quite early for a gig (something that Dara himself commented upon), we did struggle to get there but Wolfie (who was travelling from work in Doncaster) and I did manage to meet up outside a local Subway, where we had just enough time to pick up a sandwich. They have a new one out called the Pizzola, made with chicken, pepperoni and a tomato-based sauce, and indeed it tasted quite like a pizza and was particularly pleasant. My sister was also due to meet us, this being a birthday present for her, but her train from Sheffield was running terribly late and I had to leave her ticket at the front desk as we took our places. Fortunately Dara was about seven minutes late to the stage and my sister just arrived in time, although for the first half she had to sit on an end seat rather than with us as we were in the middle of an aisle (admittedly only two people in but the ushers refused to let us move them). Bafflingly, my sister rang me during the performance to tell us this, not sure what she was trying to achieve there, but we were reunited at the interval and she sat with us through the second half, after which I had bought her an ice cream.
The show was pretty fantastic, with a stronger end than beginning. Dara was on for two hours overall, longer than many stand-ups and the topics of conversation were the usual fayre from growing up and adulthood to the anthropomorphism of industrial machinery (okay that may not be that standard but the stories of buried machinery were very sad, poor Chuggie). When talking about anthropomorphism and the things children do that adults don't, I thought he may move on to furry but he didn't. However, posting pictures of your penis (one close to the hearts of many furs) and American TV box sets also featured and why Wakefield with just its one Westgate is a lot like Game of Thrones. One of the highlights was the audience interaction from the front row, who all seemed to have prepared comedic material (or improvised it they were that good) to bounce off Dara. Part of it was the usual meet and greet the front row where the comedian talks about professions (and where the audience can act like a "mob" regarding whether they approve or disapprove of someone's career - the Leeds audience really worked with this concept) but when he wanted them to design their own US HBO-style drama it went into realms of surreal fantasy. Neurology and the brain - part of Dara's interest in science - also got mentioned and he got into a bit of a dialogue with my sister who is currently doing a PhD in Alzeimer's research on more than one occasion. She got a round of applause at the end - I'm not sure I could have had such a dialogue, even if it's from behind the darkness of the theatre such is my shyness.
After the gig, we headed for a drink in Friends of Ham before my sister had to get her last train home. We sat downstairs as it was quite busy and I didn't realise there was table service down there, meaning I went up to buy drinks and had to take them all down on a tray. I was just ordering three bottles so I thought I could carry them but they insisted they poured them into glasses, necessitating the tray and resulting in me spilling a load of beer on myself as I headed down the stairs. We got a cheeky nightcap at the end - ordered from the table - and some meat sticks that looked like pig penises before I took my sister to the station after picking up some co-codemol to help resolve my rapidly disintegrating back. It was great seeing my sister again for the first time since January and I'm looking forward to seeing her again for Easter next week.
