Review for Original Comedians Live: A Celebrity Evening With...

The Original Comedians shouldn't work in this day and age. It really shouldn't. The Comedians show was a 1970s stalwart of TV with the likes of Frankie Carson, Mike Reid, Stan Boardman, Bernard Manning and more. It was the typical working man club humour and this does not translate well to the modern era. These are jokes about 'the wive's mother' or general sexist or racist topics that no one would ever be able to get away with today.

This disk pays tribute to the show and we get to see some of the best comedians from that era including Mick Miller "I used to look at the clown and think, wouldn't want to be in your shoes", Roy Walker who I'm sure everyone will know from Catchphrase, Duggie Brown "i can't stay long. My wife has laryngitis and I don't want to miss a minute of that"and Stan Boardman of the infamous 'German Foker Joke' fame, Jim Bowen from Bullseye fame who despite looking very ill was still as funny as ever.

The mix of stand up, old clips from the show and some celebs in the audience asking questions is odd at times and I understand what they were trying to do, but it does break it up a bit. I feel that maybe they should have just done the comedy and stand up first and then maybe all come on for the questions as some of the questions 'who inspired you?' could have been answered by any of them and it would have made the show flow better.

What is also strange is that if you didn't know to click on 'Backstage' you wouldn't even know it was there as it just blends into the main screen as if it is just one of the chapter selections. This is pretty nice to see them all backstage, just talking and still being as funny as they are on stage.
This disk is a nice tribute to simpler times in comedy, when you didn't need to have gimmicks or fill huge stadiums or arenas. It is just jokes on a mic and sometimes that is where the best comedy is. Now this disk isn't perfect, but as a nostalgia kick it does the job.