DYLAN MORAN is thanking people for leaving technology behind to attend his latest show when his mic feeds back and and a mobile rings in the audience.

It’s the perfect introduction for a comedian who, while sometimes teetering close to grumpy old man territory, is nevertheless the antithesis of the professional cynicism purveyed by some of his contemporaries.

The Irishman living in Scotland brings a warmth to his complaints born out of want of human connection.

Even when he reduces Shakespeare’s seven ages of man to four — child, failure, old, dead — it’s less a bitter observation than the existential fear of a man with middle-aged spread and a wife who gets cold during the day because her energy is “taken up knowing everything about everything.”

He brings a similar human-centric view to his opening sequence about the general election, during which he ignores the political agenda in favour of surreal moments of connectivity — Ed Miliband is someone who’d offer you a Twix from a multi-pack but is a “bit of an experiment politically,” Nigel Farage is a refugee from a ’70s sitcom and the solution to austerity is to axe the Great British Bake Off because “the whole point about cake is that you don’t talk about it.”

His dry observations are delivered in such a way that it’s impossible to second-guess Moran’s political affiliations, unlike Eddie Izzard — in the audience after campaigning for Labour in Leeds — whose surreal flights of fancy have parallells with Moran’s.

Tonight these take in everything from the new generation of cross-breed dogs that resemble a “car wash with teeth,” hamsters who write prison poetry with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s at their side and Erotic Fiction Blockbuster, an answer to Fifty Shades of Grey, that features men with Tesco bags and duffel coats.

These are conversationally imparted while a succession of his childlike paintings, scrawled portraits and random slogans, are projected. They’re a fitting backdrop to a stand-up set that takes familiar subjects and reduces them to an artless, playful viewpoint.

Tours until July 21, details: dylanmoran.com

Review by Susan Darlington