Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

Joe Lycett: That’s The Way A-ha A-ha (DVD Review)

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Award-winning comedian Joe Lycett has popped up on TV in the likes of Live at the Apollo, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Sunday Night at the Palladium, and now he’s getting his first live stand-up DVD, That’s The Way A-ha A-ha… Joe Lycett (get it?). Filmed at the Duchess Theatre in London, the disc showcases Joe’s mix of whimsy, acerbic comedy, and ‘being weird’.

To be honest, he is a bit of a Marmite proposition, as while many will find him a riot, other probably won’t quite get his idiosyncratic style, which varies from a love of puns, to stories from his life, to recounting the messages he sent to try and get out of a parking fine. A lot of it is very funny, and even those who overall don’t find Joe’s comedy to be quite their cup of tea, should get a few decent laughs. [Read more…]

Jack Whitehall Gets Around – Live From Wembley Arena (DVD Review)

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Jack Whitehall is a bit of a Marmite comedian, although you do get the impression that his detractors are more annoyed that he’s young, good-looking and funny than being bothered about the edge of smugness that some accuse him of. He’s certainly come a long way in a short time, with this DVD documenting his Wembley gig, which was part of a huge arena tour that attracted audiences in the 10s of thousands. And he’s still only 26.

As with many young comedians who become a big headline act, there is undoubtedly a sense that he’s still learning his trade and coming into his own. That’s particularly clear by his reliance on ‘mistakes’, which probably work well when you’re watching him live, but on DVD it’s clear that these are not mistakes at all, or at least perhaps they were at one point during the tour but have now been woven into the act and are now very deliberate. Comedians making deliberate mistakes is extremely common, but it shouldn’t look like that’s what they’re doing. [Read more…]

Jimmy Carr – Laughing & Joking (DVD)

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It doesn’t matter how many times I watch a new Jimmy Carr DVD, it still always comes as a surprise at how rude he is – something he seems to take as a personal challenge, as he always appears to be looking for the joke that will offend absolutely everyone. But that’s the thing with Carr, he comes across and so affable and polite that it allows him to get away with jokes that would have most comedians escorted off the stage. It also helps that rather than telling anecdotes he tends to tell a series of discrete jokes, which makes it far more difficult to for anyone to take even the crudest thing he says seriously. [Read more…]

Micky Flanagan – Back In The Game (DVD)

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When I’ve seen Micky Flanagan in short bursts on stand-up and panel TV shows, I’ve found him quite amusing, but I’m not 100% about his gig here. It’s not that it’s bad, but I can’t work out if he’s rather overplaying his cheeky chappie Cock-er-nee geezer persona, or if I’m just too hideously middle-class to fully appreciate it. [Read more…]

Rhod Gilbert: The Man With The Flaming Battenberg Tattoo (DVD)

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I was starting to wonder whether Rhod Gilbert’s patented brand of frustrated ranting was all purely an act. Surely someone can’t really get as annoyed and care so much about such small things? Yes it’s funny taking things to the extreme, but it’s not real, is it?

Then I watched this disc’s special feature, ‘Rhod vs. Hecklers’, which sees the comedian answer audience comments that were cut out of the main show. The first half of this feature is pretty standard, but then Rhod starts talking about how he hates the adverts pinned on the wall in front of men when they’re standing at urinals. A woman tells him that girls have the same thing on the back of the door of their toilet cubicles. And that’s enough to set Rhod off on a rant that shows just what pedant he can be, where he gets increasingly annoyed as he’s determined it’s not the back of the door, it’s the inside. [Read more…]

Jack Whitehall – Live (DVD)

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If I had to put a bet on which of today’s crop of young comedians will still be on our screens in a couple of decades time, I’d put my money on Jack Whitehall. I almost hate myself for saying that as he’s has that mix of being posh (and seemingly getting posher with every day) and overconfident that normally results in the reflex reaction, ‘tosser’. [Read more…]

Frankie Boyle – The Last Days Of Sodom (DVD)

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If nothing else, Frankie Boyle has been a good reminder of how controversial comedy can be. Having been subject to criticism and censure for jokes made on the BBC and recently winning a court action stemming from a Sun article that had labelled him a ‘racist comedian’, he’s also one of the few people who’s been able to put Katie Price in a position to take the moral high ground after she criticised jokes he made about her disabled son, Harvey. [Read more…]

Sarah Millican – Thoroughly Modern Millican (DVD)

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Sarah Millican is proof that if you dream of being a comedian, you don’t need to be like Jack Whitehall and Daniel Sloss, who came out of the womb with a microphone in their hand. Millican was 33 before she had her first Edinburgh Fringe show, which won the if.comedy award in 2008. Since then she’s had a quick rise to stardom, including national solo tours, numerous panel show appearances, her own TV series and now her second live DVD, Thoroughly Modern Millican. [Read more…]