This was a set of tickets that I was truly thrilled to get my hands on. In all of my many years of watching stand-up comedy I have somehow never managed to catch Dylan Moran live, he was slowly becoming my great white whale and for a few horrible moments this year I thought that fate had conspired against me once more – I forgot the tickets!

One incredibly kind (and speed limit fracturing) cab driver managed to save the day and as I rejoined my friends it quickly became clear that this was going to be a good night because the magic started in the queue.

As some of you will know, when you are seeing a show at The Mound you queue outside the building and then shuffle in past the bar and up the large staircase to the rooms. As we shuffled, and the bar came in to view my ‘parched’ mate called out “my round” and somehow managed to leave the queue, get to the bar, order, pay and return with three drinks by the top of the stairs! He had earned the plaudits of the queue and I feel that he may have inadvertently started a new fringe challenge.

And so, finally, without any more fluff, on to the show… Dylan Moran did not dissapoint.

He wandered out on stage without any fanfare and began by telling us that he has “taken a holiday from drinking”, he definitely hasn’t quit, he will start again but it was time for a strategic leave of absence. This news was met with an audible gasp but if anyone in the crowd was concerned that this change in levels of sobriety would somehow take the edge off this clown’s famed rambling performance, they need not have worried.

The character that we all know as either on-stage Dylan Moran or Bernard Black is still very present, clumsily staggering through expertly delivered routines and deep diving in to subjects (such as Trump) that he would really rather not talk about.

Watching the internal monologue of a man who seems so at odds with the world and yet so on point is still fascinating. It’s not even about the material – young people, mobile phones, politics, cats – it’s all pretty everyday stuff that clowns have lived on for years.

It is the delivery that puts Dr Cosmos in to another stratosphere. A whimsical look here, a word pronounced a certain way there. Dylan Moran can somehow use even the slightest gesture to great comic effect.

This Edinburgh show is the shortened version of the Dr Cosmos show that this clown will tour throughout the rest of the year and as an audience member who he definitely left wanting more I can only suggest that if he is coming to a town near you, snap up a ticket.

I definitely plan to see him perform again but -purely for nostalgia reasons- I would love it if next time he was carrying a red wine bottle rather than a tea cup.

Clown Stars: * * * * *

@The Mound, Edinburgh