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Life after the undead for Dylan Moran

Simon Donohue

MULTI-FACETED is a word which might have been fashioned with Dylan Moran in mind. The mop-topped comedian can still make 'em laugh, despite having the sullen features of a bored schoolboy.

Then there's the fact that what started as a career in stand-up comedy has developed into a successful job as a writer, sitcom star and movie actor.

Comedy tops the agenda as we speak ahead of his forthcoming Monster II show at The Lowry in Salford.

Moran is sitting on a train travelling away from Brighton, the venue for his previous evening's show, talking via a new mobile phone, having somehow managed to drop the old one into a vat of olive oil.

The oil route could be a slippery slope, so we concentrate on his amazingly varied career - stints on stage, the cult hit sit-com Channel 4 series, Black Books, and wide acclaim for his big screen acting skills, including a part in the zany zombie movie, Shaun Of The Dead.

"I don't want to do the same thing over and over again," Moran explains. "It's great to come at the same thing in another way.

"The poet and mountaineer, Al Alvarez, refers to his compulsion to scale everything as feeding the rat.

"In the same way, there is some creature gnawing away inside of me, urging me to do things in different ways."

Given the run of play, it's not surprising to hear that the Monster II tour is going well.

Just for a change, the tour is being staged internationally, with visits so far to venues in Belgium, Paris and New York.

"It's weird, we've played some crazy places," the 32-year-old comic adds. "I haven't really found it too difficult to make the show travel."

Eloquent when talking about his work, Moran isn't so open when it comes to his private life.

He tells me that he lives in Edinburgh, but will say absolutely nothing about his family and friends.

"I never talk about my family, " he says, almost apologetically. "This is something that I do and not something which they do, which is why I keep them out of it." But he will talk about his roots in the sleepy provincial town of Navan in County Meath, just to the north west of Dublin.

It's a beautiful place, he says, but he was glad to escape a few people with an insular outlook on life.

"If I hadn't done this I might have ended up digging the roads," he adds. "The careers teacher told me I had a clear choice: if I didn't end up going to university I'd end up robbing post offices. This isn't a case of me rebelling. The truth is that I'm constitutionally incapable of doing an ordinary job."

What he is clearly capable of is attracting a growing cult fan-base, with internet sites devoted to his legend now springing up.

"I never look at the internet," he insists. "I never take the limelight, not that it's all lime. But it's not that people come up to me in the street. I'm actually about as famous as a fourth division footballer from the 70s.

"But I suppose I do have a strong fan-base. The people who watch Black Books do come and see the stand-up show."

Once a self-confessed idler, another reason Moran gives for his multi-skilling is his desire to do lots of great things before he shuffles off his mortal coil.

So what's next? "I'm doing this, then there's another movie in the offing," he adds. "I don't really want to hex it by talking too much about it, but it has a great script.

"Then, I'm planning to do some more writing. I may try something in a theatre or maybe a book.

"It's true that I have spoken about doing a book before, but then everyone you speak to is planning to write a book.

"Maybe I'll write a book about somebody thinking about writing a book about somebody thinking about writing a book," he adds.

And he's probably only half joking.

Dylan Moran's Monster II show is at The Lowry, Salford, on Sunday, May 9. Tickets are £14 - to book, call 0870 111 2000 or visit the venue's website below.