Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
Pablo is a US comic who appears to have created his own cult following having featured in several popular animations including ‘Family Guy’ and ‘The Simpsons’. Last month he also crossed over the Atlantic to do a stand-up gig in East London.
Pablo Francisco’s present comedy show ‘Bits and Pieces’ is a recording made at a small comedy club. Pablo dances his way on to the stage in a robotic sequence which both bears a resemblance to a certain David Brent (Ricky Gervais) and also leads nicely in to his first routine.
Francisco is a star and this is made clear from a very appreciative audience. From a distance, Pablo could be mistaken for Ben Stiller, but that is definitely where the comparisons end. (more…)
Posted in DVD, Reviews | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Harry Hill has been one of my favourite comedians for a long time now, and I was excited to see that he had managed to transfer his comedic talents to primetime TV without too much compromise with TV Burp.
Of course when you get to the point of being part of Saturday tea-time viewing, nearly every opportunity for merchandising is taken. So last year we had the compilation DVD, this year we’ll get another one of those in November, plus this book released tomorrow (8th October).
Being a fan of Harry and TV Burp I was skeptical of how the humour would translate to the Annual format. I feel I was mostly right to be wary.
The hilarious ideas are still there like the many comic mentions of Paul Burrell, the cartoon Adventures of Ant & Dec, Derek Acorah’s Spooky Tales (in the original Scouse), and Jamie’s Misery of Food. But so few of them have the same impact that they would do if delivered by Harry live or on telly.
So you get a lower laugh count than other TV Burp products, which is a shame as it makes it smack of being just a cash-in despite the list of impressive comedy writers involved.
The RRP of £12.99 is pretty steep for what it is, but you are bound to find it discounted somewhere at which point it’s a personal decision.
Posted in Books, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
I really enjoy The Simpsons, even the bad episodes are a good way to pass the time, but do I need to have the episodes at hand whenever I want? Probably not.
Maybe this is the dilemma of the DVD distributor these days – with so much choice on digital TV, and on-demand television gaining ground, what is the selling point of the Box-set?
In the case of the Series 12 of the Simpsons DVD Boxset the selling point is the imaginative and detailed extras, as well as appealing to the Simpsons completists out there. You’ve got episode commentaries, deleted scenes, animation showcase and a whole lot more.
And then there are the 21 episodes – some great, some middling but worth a watch.
So it’s a good boxset, if you like that sort of thing.
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Monday, August 10th, 2009
3 days later and back at Etcetera Theatre again. The first piece of good news is that the aircon is actually working properly this time and it feels quite comfortable. Which is appropriate, because that’s exactly the mood that Triona Adams creates within minutes of taking the stage and maintains till the end of the piece.
The performance is a monologue which leads us through a period of about 18 months in Triona Adams’ life. The starting point is her life as a successful London theatrical agent which she abandons to become a nun, and the main narrative concerns her experiences in a Benedictine abbey (don’t call it a convent or a nunnery) somewhere between Oxford and Swindon. There are no big gags in the show, but the tightness of the script and the quality of Triona’s gentle performance and stagecraft made this a spell-binding show which kept the audience at the Etcetera enthralled throughout. (more…)
Posted in Gig, Reviews | No Comments »
