WHEN I first saw Dylan Moran perform, some 10 years ago, it was with wine and cigarette in hand in London.

The more wine he drank the more black his humour became.

After a few years there was chocolate, as a smoking substitute, and on Saturday night at the Pavilion a small glass of wine from which the legendarily unkempt Irish comedian sipped sparingly.

On the first leg of his Off The Hook tour, Moran is now 43, married with children, with several noted film and television performances to his name, and is established on the circuit.

The angst and nihilism of those earlier shows has mellowed into a kind of genial world-weariness.

Moran has given up smoking, he tells us, and turned to the fridge instead. Now he views himself as 'interesting European delicatessen fat'.

He appeals to fellow husbands and fathers to feel his pain - his kids ignore him, his wife is a woman and therefore knows everything, his pets die too quickly.

He is in love, not romance, they are very different and the former involves more shouting.

Much in this tour is familiar from the last and a few well-worn stand up topics are aired, even the Germans.

But such is the uniqueness of Moran's tired but zany delivery, adored by his long-term fans, that even a joke about Americans being overly enthusiastic sounds fresh.

The show builds gradually from start to finish and there is a noticeable lift in the second half, which moves on to the more personal topics.

Moran has a packed tour schedule ahead and it is well worth catching him somewhere and it will hopefully not be too long until he is back in Bournemouth.