A special one-off "comedy extravaganza", which usually means someone's testing the water before committing to a full series. Comedy Live Presents was very much a Saturday Live clone, with Russell Brand replacing Ben Elton as compere (and swapping political satire for stories about grabbing the Queen's breasts post-Royal Variety Performance.)
I have a love/hate relationship with Brand; finding him overrated as a celebrity, yet underrated as a stand-up. Brand has yet to find the ideal television format for himself, with his Radio 2 show still the best outlet for his manic, ridiculous, anarchic tone. Comedy Live Presents wasn't a bad fit -- with Brand ably holding everything together and firing off a few fun routines about the Queen, masturbation and "seagulling" -- all while, quite uncomfortably, his mother sat in the audience.
The first "act" on the show was Irish comedian David O'Doherty, who sat on an island-stage with a keyboard, wearing a white suit, and proceeded to basically sing a series of rhyming jokes with musical accompaniment. While not particularly hilarious, it was oddly amusing, and some of O'Doherty's rhymes in his "FAQ For The DOD" song worked well. Rather strangely, O'Doherty became something of a stooge for Brand throughout the rest of the show, acting as "the straightman".
Next up was Michael McIntyre, a comedian who already impressed me immensely with his appearance on Live At The Apollo awhile back. McIntyre proved again that he's one of the best stand-ups around right now, with some hilarious jokes about the "weird six days between Christmas and New Year", half-blind Gordon Brown and monthly pregnancy tests being more expensive than broadband.
Less successful was a sketch featuring Dr Dick Stroker (hardy-har), a "mad scientist type" who basically introduced news clips where the voices of the Queen, Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise had been re-dubbed -- to not-so-hilarious effect...
The Stroker character was part of the Comedy Live Players, who seemed to consist of the least talented members of Channel 4's Star Stories troupe. They followed Stroker with with a rather weak sketch with the offspring of the Spice Girls chatting together in a play pen... but only Mel B's daughter having Eddie Murphy's iconic laugh made me smile.
So far, the guests had been relatively new comedians/performers, but then it was the turn of Paul Kaye -- still most famous for unleashing faux interviewer Dennis Pennis on unsuspecting celebrities in the 90s. Fans may remember that Pennis started off as the best thing about The Sunday Show, and almost managed the same feat here with his latest creation: Mike Strutter. I say "latest creation", but foulmouthed Strutter has been around for awhile, but only recently has started to step into the limelight -- with a MTV video-clips-based series.
Here, Strutter took charge of "Mr & Fucking Mrs", an adult spoof of Mr & Mrs with liberal sprinkling of sex, drugs, swearing and risky humour. It was funny in parts, and Kaye cultivates a dangerous feeling whenever he's on-stage.... so for that reason I'd rate it a success, even if the gags mostly revolved around easy shocks...
Lee Mack arrived with a few minutes of material up his sleeve, clutching a beer bottle but still looking rather low-key and "safe" after Strutter's antics. His material was fine, but I'd heard most of it before, and the only memorable part was a funny look at drink-driving statistics.
Heading into the home straight, Leigh Francis arrived in his Craig David guise from 'Bo Selecta! It's been awhile since Francis has been on our screens, despite almost being the face of Channel 4 late-night comedy a few years ago. The premise here was a short documentary on his Craig David alter-ego, who has fallen on bad times since 'Bo Selecta! and blames his "creator" Francis ("the ginger twat".)
It seemed like this would be quite an interesting piece (with a comedy creation taking on its creator), but it quickly relaxed into the usual mix of poking fun at D-list celebs (Anthony Costa from Blue) and David's persona... which was never accurate to begin with, now looks incredibly old-hat, and isn't helped by the fact David has recently reinvented himself (losing the beanie hat/goatee and pumping iron.)
The final act was the most left-field; stand-up from comedienne Roseanne Barr, best known in this country for his early-90s sitcom Roseanne. She wasn't too bad, after a shaky start, with some amusing gags about map-reading and Viagra (even if they weren't exactly cutting edge stuff), but it was mostly just a surprise to see how much weight she's lost in 15 years!
And there you have it. Quite an eclectic mix, and it certainly passed an hour very well. Brand actually did a solid job keeping it all rolling along, but only McIntyre and Strutter really had the anarchic appeal Brand's presence seemed to suggest Comedy Presents Live was all about.
The Comedy Live Players were particularly bad (although I liked their closing interview with "Kevin Keegan" during the end credits), while the reactions of the delirious happy audience members didn't always match the content of what was being shown. Two frizzy-haired sisters/twins in the front row seemed particularly enamored with Brand -- and were probably hoping for a call to his dressing room after the show....
All said, this wasn't terrible, but I just don't see why it was a "one-off special". As the first episode of a series, it showed promise.... but as a special treat, it had more misses than hits.
25 January 2008
Channel 4, 10.00 pm
