Dylan Moran, Hammersmith Apollo - review

At the start of last night's rapturously received sell-out show he was in unusually serious mood, describing the country as a divided land of haves in the capital and have-nots in the North.

He then clarified exactly how Londoners are privileged: "You are never more than 10 metres from a Nando's."

This was very much a gig of two halves, with the first section given over to the Black Books star's political aperçus. The elegantly unkempt Irishman nibbled chocolate as he explained how his countrymen were not cut out for economic booms.

One minute they were making soup out of stones, the next they were in "helicopters eating swans".

It was a recipe for disaster and sure enough the Irish are supping stone soup again.

After the interval, Moran put his own offbeat spin on the familiar comic terrain of masculinity.

Instead of growing a ponytail or buying a motorbike, his middle-aged male affectation is action films, "where you don't know what is going on and neither does the hero".

He can relate to this when he mislays his keys.

Maturity does not bring contentment, it brings madness, with men fumbling around like half-finished Frankensteins.

But it was an aside towards the end of this intelligent evening that hinted at what truly makes this eccentric mad. While skewering the bourgeois tedium of dinner parties, he considered the arena-packing Michael McIntyre: "I hope you fall off your money and hurt yourself," he sneered.

Never mind the economy, lost keys or Nando's, it is more successful comedians who really wind Moran up.

Tonight and tomorrow (0844 844 0444, ticketmaster.co.uk)

Dylan Moran: Yeah, Yeah
HMV Apollo
Queen Caroline Street, W6 9QH