Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Punderful, 20 Nov 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Recorded at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London during July 2008, Vine is cheesily shameless in his presentation of the most tenuous one-liners, ridiculous songs and fooling about with props. All are unveiled with such a devotion to silliness that you forgive even the hoariest routines, the comic acknowledging occasional groans with a "don't worry, we'll put the laughs on later".
An hour of even his slickest jokes would be wearing though and Vine wisely varies the pace and intersperses his one-liners with a greater number of songs than he's ever previously performed, each as utterly pointless as the last.
A standout is the gleefully daft Flag Hippo, which he imagines keeping us awake later pondering just what the hell it was about. Elsewhere, he spends almost ten minutes trying to catch a pen behind his ear, skilfully keeping the crowd invested in his monotonous enterprise by testing their patience to ludicrous, and thus extremely funny, excess.
Although Vine's set is undeniably formulaic and family-friendly, these limitations compel him to excel within the parameters he imposes on himself, challenging the audience to second-guess his punchlines from the setups while throwing in enough absurd detours to keep it interesting.
Extras on the disc are many but disappointing. Most are simply Vine messing about with his camcorder and friends, a spoof report on him trying various sports scarcely justifying the time and effort expended upon it.
Still, there's an amusing interview with a psychologist in which she identifies his addiction to puns as arising from emotional issues and a fear of intimacy, to which he responds appropriately enough with a pun. And a sweet moment when his dad is hauled on stage to deliver the first joke he ever told the young Tim.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Proof that deadpan gags and groan-inducing puns will NEVER die!, 25 Oct 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Tim Vine is a comedian I'd never heard of before. In my life, I'd found it was the likes of Peter Kay, Johnny Vegas, Billy Connelly among many, many more that reigned supreme in the world of laughter, and I stumbled upon this comedian and DVD purely by accident. And it turned out that it was a happy accident.
"So I Said To This Bloke..." is a rather good hour-long show for many reasons. Vine handles himself throughout the concert in credible and respectable fashion. He comes across as a guy who is both confident and wants to have a good time with his audience. No force-feeding jokes down people's throats to make them laugh along with him, just a general feel-good atmosphere that is ideal for families to enjoy.
Vine's method of comedy is simple. He is a true gag-man, through and through, and delivers non-stop gags, one after the next, and puns that are effective in inducing laughter and/or good-natured groans. There's also a bit of madness thrown in with the arrival of `the Flag Hippo' (perhaps inspired by Vic and Bob?) and some nice audience participation as well.
Having watched this live show allowed me to develop a great respect for Tim Vine. The clean, deadpan humour is a field he has wisely chosen, he performs at a good pace, and he doesn't outstay his welcome, either. All in all, the show is a fine one and symbolises a quality performer/comedian.
However, there are some aspects of the DVD and Vine's style of comedy that I feel I can't overlook without criticising. Which brings me onto the special features. Don't get me wrong, there is a great assortment of extras here, but there are some things that are rather hit-and-miss and just don't work as well as they're meant to.
The first thing is the `Flag Hippo in Love' extra video. I don't know exactly what Vine was trying to do here. Maybe go into the realm of Vic and Bob, but it doesn't work as well as it should. Something similar also occurs with his `Juke Box' Pop Video, where I feel he was trying to do something like Peter Kay. The video's okay but ONLY okay. I got the impression that Vine was trying to vary himself and his act, which is commendable, but I personally think he should stick to what he knows and does best.
Another issue is the `Tim Vine in Conversation' extra. This was another worthy idea that wasn't pulled off that well. Vine is interviewed about various life topics and his career and chooses to go over-the-top with his humour. Not to say that the piece is a disaster, because it isn't at all. I just feel that if he'd just toned down a bit more, the `In Conversation' interview would've worked much better.
Of course, these are only minor disappointments. The rest of the extras are superb. The `Encore' moments from the live show are excellent, where he invites his dad to tell a joke and performs the `Family Holidays' song on the piano. The `Paranamasiac' feature is very enlightening and fascinating, as Tim discusses with a psychologist the compulsive use of puns. There's also some Deleted Scenes (quite literally), a feature on Tim's stint in pantomime and the BEST special feature on the whole disc, `Parade of Sport'. This is a brilliant 24-minute addition that features Vine providing tips when partaking in various sports, such as golf, tennis, snooker, bowling, swimming, discus, basketball and many more. Vine's humour shines again here and works very well in real-life scenarios as it does on stage. It's a fantastic special feature.
While I would not rate Tim Vine on a par with any of Britain's more predominant stand-up comedians, I watched this DVD and was impressed with what I saw. It made me laugh throughout and have a good time watching the show, which instantly means success. "So I Said To This Bloke..." is a cracking live show backed up by quality extras. This is a DVD that showcases a consistently top-notch and unique comedian. Tim Vine is very, very good and I would recommend this particular show to all comedy lovers.
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7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Quickfire punning and wordplay, 28 Oct 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
I'm really torn between awarding three and four stars for this. On the one hand Vine's act IS funny, but in a sort of way which makes the audience groan at how bad and corny each joke is. It's intentionally lame humour.
He must average about one joke every ten seconds through this act, though there are a few longer jokes, such as the pen-behind-the-ear skit (which basically involves him throwing a pen to try to catch it behind his ear to a musical chant "Pen behind the ear! Pen behind the ear!") and the Flag Hippo sketch, where he sings to a man dressed as a hippo, asking the hippo to point to countries' flags on a chart the hippo is holding. The pen trick must last five minutes, though it seems longer.
Another random joke that I can recall is Vine holding up a sign that reads "FUTURE EVENTS" and he says, "There's a sign of things to come!" There are plenty of other gags involving props like this and most involve some kind of wordplay or pun.
However, I'm not sure who this comedy would appeal to. I notice some other reviewers have said that this would be good family viewing as it isn't rude or offensive, but I'm not sure that children would fully appreciate the extent to which Vine's humour relies on the manipulation of language. It IS often visual, too, but even his props and songs usually rely on language.
I must say that the jokes came so thick and fast that I often had to think about them quite a bit and though Vine does always leave a silence for it to sink in, sometimes he'd started another joke before I'd got the last one! The novelty did start to wear off after half an hour and I generally enjoyed the second half of the show less than the first.
Overall, I will say that Vine's act is a refreshing change in an age where most other comedians seem to rely on being vulgar and offensive to get laughs. Rude comedy does have its place, but, like I said, I enjoyed this change. Vine reminds me a little bit of Russ Abbot for some reason, with his silliness and ironic looks at the camera as he waits for the penny to drop with the audience.
I enjoyed it.
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