Johnny Vegas - Who's Ready For Ice Cream? [DVD]

I feel that at least somebody should come out in defence of Who's Ready For Ice Cream, as it seems to have been widely panned.

I'm not saying that those who have written negative reviews "don't get it", nor am I saying that this is aimed at everyone - however, I picked this up after seeing Stewart Lee being interviewed about it on YouTube, as it sounded intriguing. One

"Most people don't like it, and I think that was part of Johnny's joke. He is often having a laugh at the expense of the world, and of himself, and I think he loved the idea of people, of familes, who'd seen him on Shooting Stars, buying that DVD as a Christmas Day gift and then watching it - and it being this really rather brutal, depressing sort of thing... with not really any jokes in it, and I think he wanted that."

Maybe I enjoyed it because I knew what I was getting and thus circumvented Johnny's hour-long bear trap, maybe I gave it more of a chance than I would have done if it had been the work of an unknown, but I really really liked it. It was different and interesting. I'd say it's worth a punt - maybe off Marketplace - if you liked things like Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, or if you were one of the eight people who saw Simon Munnery's Attention Scum.

I fail to think of a comedy DVD that captures a unique stand-up's style so well. The grimy, somewhat upsetting fictional element to the film is perfectly allegorical to the mood of Johnny's material and the stand-up performances themselves (through ingenious choices with the camera work and Vegas being at the top of his game) simulates the genuinely uncomfortable feeling of being in a room with Johnny performing to a tee. The Extra's are terrific, extensive stand up sets with the same beautifully structured camerawork, genuinely impressive and challenging DVD.

This is initially enjoyable but does become tiresome - the idea is that Johnny is semi-kidnapped and forced back to his comedic roots at Edinburgh, having become complacent with telly and money. Trouble is, the bullying both of his agent and the psycho comic sharing a flat with him in Edinburgh become rather samey and predictable over the length of the film. And the idea he is a passive victim of his agent's whims (hasn't TV given him some sense of his own power?)doesn't quite convince.

It's a particularly frustrating watch because Vegas's character can fit into a convincing storyline, as his show on Channel Four some years ago demonstrated. This was The Johnny Vegas Television Show (not issued commercially as far as I know), which had him as a pathetic, alcoholic loser living in the shadow of his shining hour at Skegness Butlins, and boring anyone within earshot about the purity of his work as an entertainer. The show had several "real" people improvising with Johnny, including Adrian Manfredi, a genuine ice cream man continually pestered in the local park by a penniless Vegas. He reappears in this film as his sponsor for Edinburgh (hence the title of the feature and the supposed stage show), though there is no reference to this earlier acquaintance.

As other reviewers have said, the excerpts from live performances, both as part of the film and as extras, are the most impressive thing: that knife edge between the shambolic and the inspired, familiar to anyone who has seen him in the flesh.

And as for the rest of the film's content, some may ask why should the storyline matter that much as long it means we get to see Johnny Vegas for ninety minutes (or whatever)? Well, yes, it does matter. It matters because once we're aware that this is a situation contrived to make us laugh then that undoes the illusion of this comedian tearing out his entrails which is at the heart of his live performance - and that Channel Four show was funny because you never stopped believing you were watching a truly desperate but driven man.

It also has to be said that the limits of Manfredi's improv skills are more noticeable in Who's Ready For Ice Cream?; in the other programme he simply has to react to Johnny winding him up most of the time. And there is a more complex and profound conclusion in the other programme where Johnny remains an alcoholic loser with dreams of returning to his Butlins glory days but is at least the recipient of kindness from others (a benign park keeper) and remains safely cushioned in his own drunkeness and dreams.

I know I've gone on about a programme not itself the subject of this review but it has so much that seems to fit the Vegas character that it seems the best way of explaining why Who's Ready for Ice Cream? misfires and demonstrating that Vegas's character can indeed work in an extended story.