Dara Ó Briain Marquee, Cork

Did he open with the football? Jimmy Carr? No.

Dara Ó Briain opened with the weather and 4,000 people laughed.

The Marquee gig got off to a good start. As the comedian pointed out, it was pure comedy, in Cork, in a tent, in the rain. And then he mentioned Jedward (they own the tent during the day) and invited the audience to imagine what an hour of just jumping would be like — of course he mimed a JW move and the audience corpsed.

And then Ó Briain got into the groove — moving on quickly, almost eating the lines as observation followed observation to end in a group laugh. Those in the front row knew they were in for a grilling and we had quite a lecture on the sort of jobs we were in.

Role play was key, the comedian said, citing the jobs we’ve all loved since childhood — jobs like fireman, or baker, he suggested. And jobs that implied sexual role play — like fireman or baker. Row collapses.

The comedian moved seamlessly from topic to topic, throwing in the Irish English thing, and ending the first half of the set with an hilarious mime of his child’s nativity play while loudly protesting his atheism. But you expect that from Ó Briain, the last bastion of clean, clear empiricism. Either way, for all the high falutin’ moments he has the populist touch — he talks to the audience as if they’re the other guy on the bar stool — and women — he loves women. Last night, he gave it socks when it came to the difference between the sexes and the audience, all sides, loved it.

And while Ó Briain ploughs his furrow on the island next door, you get the feeling that despite his major success there, (well except for School of Hard Sums perhaps), and their love of his rounded, well developed personality and awesome intellect, the Pet Irishman is really at home, when he’s at home.

You see, it seems that Irish audiences really get the whole middle-class, Fiachra McCabáiste background, the vowels, the educated angle and the laconic irony. He doesn’t flip around the place like the Easter bunny on acid, a la Michael McIntyre, neither does he adopt the speed freak, psychotic-episode comedy of a Tiernan.

No, no, Dara Ó Briain is a nicely behaved, well brought up smart-ass, who can juggle looking like the class prefect, (for God’s sake, remember Echo Island?) with an unerring eye for sedition. We likey.