So, so and average

Introduction

Canadian comic Russell Peters is already a comedy star in much of the world, having performed stand up for the last 20 years. During a recent tour of Dubai, Russell sold tickets at the rate of one ticket every two seconds - crashing all the online sales outlets. In June 2008 he became the first comedian to sell-out Toronto's Air Canada Centre - performing for over 30,000 fans over two nights, and he has received four Gemini Awards nominations.

In February 2008 he became one of only a handful of comedians to ever headline and sell-out the world famous Madison Square Garden, where he recorded this DVD. And now, one year later it is released for your enjoyment...

Video and Audio

Once again, we only got a DVD-R to review, and you're probably sick of me moaning about this. As this is only a stand up comedy DVD then it matters a little less, but it still gets on my nerves since companies never used to do it. It's likely that the video and audio are probably very similar to the final disc, and they are both pretty good but no guarantees!

Extra Features

Lots of stuff here. The one thing I can't tell you about is the bonus audio CD because this was not sent out to reviewers.
However, there's plenty of other content. We get a full commentary featuring Russell Peters, Clayton Peters (his brother) & director Jigar Tilati. They talk all through the show about various aspects of it.

There are also some deleted scenes (with optional commentary), a small feature on doing a show for the army (again with optional commentary), the 'White Jacket' bootleg which contains some scenes from the previous night (again with optional commentary) and a brief documentary called 'Sneak Peak'.

These are all interesting and worthwhile features.

Conclusion

Once again I'm afraid I'm going to draw a predictable conclusion. Those who enjoy Peters' work will enjoy this, but if you've not seen him perform before then your reaction may well be only luke warm. This show was ok, there are some very smart and careful observations along the way, but it was never laugh out loud funny for me.

Now a point af factual accuracy (and call me a pedant if you're being picky about it). If you're going to make a joke about Canada not playing in the World Cup, check your facts first, since they qualified for the finals in Mexico 1986. And the same goes for India, who qualified by default for the 1950 FIFA World Cup as a result of the withdrawal of all of their scheduled opponents. But they did not take up their place in the competition because FIFA demanded all players wear football boots and a number of players refused.

So, if you like Russell Peters, you'll like this. If his name is new to you, check out some YouTube footage first to see if you might be interested.