Is Dylan Moran the Shane Macgowan of comedy?

[Colleen Mary]

I recently downloaded 3 of Dylan Morans standup shows. The first thing I thought of was how much he reminded me of Shane. I really don't know why, he doesn't look like Shane, he doesn't sound like Shane, maybe it's just the smokin' and drinkin' I seen Dylan in concert in Oct. He was FANTASTIC! Now all I have to do is get the Pogues to come back to the States and my life will be complete! PLEASE, SHANE, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

[in_the_morning]

I think Dylan Moran is brilliant, a very very talented and intelligent man. The series "Black Books" was phenomenal. You can find the whole series on youtube. He plays an alcoholic, chain-smoking bookshop owner

[Colleen Mary]

I love Black Books!! If you get a chance watch "Monster" (I think it's his first stand up show) Hilarious!!!! I figured out what connects Shane and Dylan, Shane=musical genius. Dylan=comical genius. They also like a drinky poo and smokey treat! Good Boys!

[old barney greyheron]

I love Dylan Moran! Very funny, very clever guy...got all his stand-up dvds and all of Black Books..tremendous! I also love that he doesn't 'play the game'..he never appears on panel shows and shit..in fact i've only ever seen him do one tv chat show and that was years ago.

[in_the_morning]

He, he appears to be a very honest and modest guy, while at the same time being highly talented...his remarks remind me of Shane a lot...he suddenly comes out with something brilliant...great man!

[James Murphy]

Another characteristic the two men share: making the writing look a lot easier than it is.

[Colleen Mary]

AGREED AND AGREED!

[in_the_morning]

Another characteristic the two men share: making the writing look a lot easier than it is.

This is so true! I know from first hand experience how bloody hard it can be to write a decent song, having written a few ones myself (nothing brilliant, but stuff which I would consider good enough to play in front of an audience). What happens quite often is that I get a good line or even a whole verse out of nowhere, and I think: "this could become part of a cool song...", but then the majority is missing and you have to come up with something, which I find really really hard most of the time...so looking at people like Shane or Townes Van Zandt (my two favorite songwriters of all time), I really don't know how they did it, but maybe that's where their true brilliancy shines through. But then again, I've read a LOT about Shane, and many people have stated that in the early days when he used to be really ambitious, he could be found working on his songs for ages and ages until they satisfied him.

[James Murphy]

I'll tell you my favourite Townes song. Lungs. That's brilliant. Of course you've heard Shane and The Mighty Stef's Waiting Round to Die?

[in_the_morning]

Yeah, Lungs is brilliant, and Shane's version of Waiting Round To Die is great as well, he even added an extra verse...two of my Townes favorites: No Place To Fall and Come Tomorrow.

[Colleen Mary]

My big Sis and I were at the pub tonight and my hubby was none to happy with me this evening. Oh well,he'll get over it! Anyway, I was thinking about the Dylan Moran bit when he says," the brain only has 3 bits: the front bit that you scratch when you come in at half one in the morning and your other half asks" Where the fuck were you", the middle bit that tries to come up with the excuse and the back bit that plays the last song that was on at the pub.