Lee Mack - Going Out Live [DVD]

Enjoyed this much more than I expected to - he's genuinely funny, particularly in audience participation - and especially so when it goes wrong, as it does here. Only criticism is that he seems a little less relaxed/in control than usual - maybe because it was the DVD filming night. Just sometimes a little uncomfortable - like watching a man on the edge of a breakdown.

Really enjoyed the extras for a change - good backstage mini-doc, where you get a good feel for the real man offstage, as well as highlights from support act Simon Evans's act.

This stand-up comedy DVD is worth a watch for a few laughs on an evening. Lee Mack starts off perhaps a bit awkwardly but soon get into his stride and delivers joke after joke in his usual 'cheeky chap' style.

Lee Mack is the sort of comedian who is difficult to dislike, he comes across as a very warm guy and his humour is on the whole not of the offensive variety. He is generally considered a fairly low-brow comedian compared to the more satirical acts out there but it's clear that he's an clever guy and one or two of his gags got little response from the audience as they struck a more intelligent chord and felt different from the rest of his material. He's a natural on stage and not scared to make himself the subject of his own jokes, early on he engages in banter with the audience and some of the best laughs in the DVD come from his off-the-hoof comments and sharp responses.

This is a show of new material but I have heard some of it from his TV appearances so the full impact of those jokes were slightly lost with me, and I felt that some jokes had a large build up which didn't seem to pay off at the end. There is enough strong material on here though to ensure that you do have a good laugh, but it is a bit patchy and doesn't constantly make you laugh throughout. This would have been better off as an excellent 45 minute show rather than the hour and ten minutes which feels a bit padded.

The additional features include the warm-up act (a short stint by Simon Evans) and featurette on the tour itself.

In a nutshell: This certainly isn't a bad stand-up comedy DVD, it contains enough laughs to make it a valuable title for a comedy DVD collection - but the quality varies between jokes and the routine suffers from some weaker material - thankfully though when it's good it's really good and those moments make it worthwhile.

Everybody has a different sense of humour, which makes reviewing a stand-up comedy DVD pretty difficult. You can't tell anyone what's funny and what isn't, it's too subjective. If you personally find something funny, then it is funny.

I've seen some of Lee Mack's live shows on TV before, and he made me laugh so much I was in tears. Unfortunately, I sat through the whole of Going Out Live, and laughed out loud maybe three or four times in 71 minutes! Lee's delivery was fast and energetic, but his material (which he wrote entirely himself) just wasn't funny. Amusing, yes. But funny, no.

It seems like, in order to compensate for his weak material, Lee decided to try and be as offensive as possible. The problem is, repeatedly shouting the "c" word and calling women in the audience fat and old, isn't my idea of comedy. If it's yours though, then you're absolutely going to love this.

I could go on, but I think I've established that I didn't enjoy it. Looking through the Customer Reviews here on Amazon, I've noticed that no one has actually detailed what you get on the DVD. So I might as well do that, before I put it in the bin. Basically, the Main Menu has three items:

1. Play Live Show (1h 10m 55s)
2. Scene Selection
3. Bonus Features

If you go into Scene Selection, you'll find the Live Show broken into the following 16 chapters, which should give you a rough idea of the topics Lee covers:

1. We're Here In Hammersmith
2. Contains Strong Language
3. Obsessed With Age
4. French Words
5. Location, Location, Location
6. The Gas Man
7. Singing With Manchesterness
8. The Serious Bit
9. Tonight's Star Prize
10. Babe-Station
11. Parents Are To Blame
12. The University Of Life
13. TV
14. Singing The Row
15. Any Questions?
16. Credits

Bonus Features contains two videos: a dull unfunny behind-the-scenes documentary, and a very brief clip from Simon Evans' half hour act:

1. On Tour With Lee Mack (23m 55s)
2. Warm Up Act: Simon Evans (3m 27s)