Comedy review: Ardal O'Hanlon

Published on Monday 14 September 2009 19:02

ARDAL O'HANLON *** MAGNUM CENTRE, IRVINE

TIMES are tough, admits Ardal O'Hanlon, confessing he's outsourced his joke-writing operation to India. But instead of the promised material about arranged marriages and bathing in the Ganges, he gives us Ardal the middle-aged grump – as bewildered by the world as ever, yet without the cheerful optimism forever associated with his portrayal of Father Dougal McGuire.

He makes a couple of allusions to Father Ted, the TV series that made his name – not least the endearing tale of US newspapers straight-facedly reporting McGuire to be in the running to be the new Pope – but in doing so rather dates his routines. Certainly, he's been performing much of this material for a few years now. Still, if his heart doesn't seem in some of the jokes and a few simply fizzle out for want of a stronger punchline, he wears his ongoing exasperation as a father and husband with grouchy charm. At his best, there's a masterful economy to his delivery, encapsulating an absurd scene in a single phrase and heightening it by ramping up his mock outrage or obliviousness – elaborate role-playing with his wife that sees him unwittingly cuckolded a particular case in point.

Alongside routines on the life-cycle of a man's nightwear, the escalation of an argument about violence and the dangers of trampolines, there are several classics from his repertoire here. But the latter especially is trotted out with a noticeable lack of conviction. Following a reasonably prestigious recent mini-tour of the US, a basketball court in a leisure centre has to be something of a comedown, and an appreciative but generally muted crowd makes him work hard. Nevertheless, there are satisfying flashes of his distinctive, frustrated wit.