Interview: Dylan Moran on troublesome technology, Black Books and why …

MISANTHROPE Bernard Black famously banned mobile phones in his bookshop in Channel 4′s hit sitcom, Black Books.

Now Dylan Moran, the man behind that character, is on tour with a show about relentless tweets and text messages and the effect they have on our restless minds.

“There’s lots of me in that character,” he told Weekend.

“I’m not brilliant with technology. I’m quite slow to catch up. I’m amazed by some of the things they can do.

“But I’m not really so much interested in the kit as I am in what it tells us about the way we’re thinking, the way our brains work, what we’re avoiding and what we’re going towards

“No matter how sophisticated technology gets and no matter how much kit we have clunking around in space the thing that still stops people in their tracks is other people.”

Dylan, who appeared in Shaun of the Dead and Calvary, added: “Remember when you had an answer machine for the first time?

“It was great because you could decide if you wanted to pick up the call or not.

“Sometimes people would call and say: ‘I didn’t expect you to answer. I just wanted to leave a message’.

“That was the early stages of all these different levels of intimacy of communication.

“I’m very aware that people are definitely choosing to be with machines rather than be with each other – watching something online or whatever rather than talk to somebody.

“I think it means people are going to be less tolerant of each other. People are slower than machines.

“Sometimes it takes people a long time to ‘buffer’ themselves to gather what they want to say.”

Dylan’s observational stand-up routine is called Off The Hook and looks at how technology has crept into our lives – and our pockets.

A world where people walk across the road without looking because they are too busy jabbing at the screen on their phone.

“The post-human shuffle I call that,” Dylan said.

“Since I last did my last show I’ve definitely noticed that smart phones and social media have much more of a grip on us.

“Back then people were still getting used to the greater connectivity.

“I think it’s really interesting because I don’t think it’s just a blip. I don’t think it’s a case of people are messing around with smart phones and they’ll get over it and stop in a year or two.

“I think the expectations have changed everything for us. I was in the phone shop with my son and I was looking at all the people in there and it was like people going to the dentist or the doctor’s.

“It’s what you do now – go for a digital check-up.”

The dad-of-two added: “I’m like every other parent in the west who has children. You’re constantly at them to do something ‘real’.

“The thing is they’re the frontline generation for all that stuff. There’s no time to get used to it – you just have to adapt to it as it’s happening so it’s a case of: ‘Is it screwing us up? And what can we do about it?’

“It’s a somewhat different experience of being a human being for those people. They’ve got these devices which really are like extensions of their own body

“They’re just there at the end of their fingertips more than they’re not. I don’t know where it’s going to go. I’m hoping I’m going to be dead for a lot of it.”

Dylan cut his teeth on the comedy circuit in 1992. Just four years later he became the youngest comic to win the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival at 24.

“Being hungry was very inspiring,” he said.

“Needing lunch was my Nightingale and Grecian Urn.

“I didn’t feel anything. I was broke and hungry and they gave me prize money. It was the one time in my life I bought two lunches because I didn’t know which to get.

“It wasn’t about breaking records. It really was about getting the next gig. You don’t want to be living like that your whole life but it’s certainly a spur. It helps you focus.”

But Dylan will probably be best known for creating Black Books alongside Graham Linehan, who was behind Father Ted and The IT Crowd.

The 43-year-old played red wine quaffing Bernard Black alongside Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig and said he got the idea from ‘grumpy people in bookshops’.

Dylan added: “I was very lucky. I got to work with great people. Bill’s this extraordinary comic powerhouse and Tamsin’s an amazing actor. She can do anything and we learnt a lot from her.

“The whole team working on Black Books was great. Great producers, great directors. We had a good time.

“People seem to be talking about it again. I’m surprised because it was a while ago. I think another generation of people must have seen it online.”

– Dylan Moran presents Off The Hook at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on May 2

DAVID MORGAN

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