If you're a big fan of The Late Late Show and a fan of Craig Ferguson, you'll probably enjoy A Wee Bit O' Revolution, Ferguson's first stand-up comedy DVD. If, however, you're not already a fan of his, this DVD will likely do little to make you one.
Ferguson's stand-up act presented here is reminiscent of the type of comedy performed by a late night talk show host, not so much in terms of the material but in the delivery. For a late night TV host, riling up his audience is a good way to ensure that the sleepy home viewers stay interested. From the first second Ferguson appears on stage at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston he immediately begins overly playing to the live audience, attempting to rile them up with a lot of excited shouting about the Wilbur itself, which is fine in theory but it goes on for too long for any DVD viewer. Ferguson panders to the audience throughout the performance, elongating jokes and restating punch-lines to the point of home-viewer-exhaustion merely because he gets a good reaction from the theater crowd.
One of his jokes is that in Scotland, "'damp' is a color," which is funny, but then he belabors it exhaustively when the statement elicits particularly strong laughter from the audience. Ferguson pauses and waits for the laughs to die down, then continues, "Oh, those are nice pants but do you have them in 'damp'?" Again here he pauses for laughs before continuing, "Hmm, I like your car. I think I'd like one of those in 'damp'." As a result, his "damp is a color" gag ends up lasting almost a minute for a one-line joke. The audience in the theater continues to wail like a stuck laugh-track while the DVD viewer checks his or her watch and awaits Ferguson moving on to the next joke.
Ferguson's performance itself isn't bad, mind you, it's just peppered with moments like this that seem to drag on a little too long. I actually had quite a few chuckles throughout A Wee Bit O' Revolution, but no big laughs and I didn't enjoy it enough to really recommend to anyone but Ferguson's biggest fans.
Article comments
1 - Mary Garrett Engman
Mr. Big Hat, or perhaps Mr. BIG HEAD would be more truth. I object to your dissing this DVD. There are a lot of people who really care about this genius Comic, Craig Ferguson. Perhaps your high brow tastes are offended when a man makes people laugh and put such energy into his stage presence. I saw the bleeped version, but I have the DVD you are discussing on order from Amazon. I am offended for Ferguson fans every where. Since taking over from the Frat boy he has made the late, Late show into a really enjoyable show. He stands before millions of people each week night or early morning depending on your time zone and gives us insight into the happening that occur in our world. He has more talent in his little finger than most comic do with a bunch of writers who try and make those cards and teleprompter dependent comics funny. He can make a facial expression and a few words and make us all fall off our chair laughing. So keep your insights to yourself. Let those people who hasn't become fans yet make a decision based on his light and airy comic talent rather than on your second hand remarks. Stop blowing yourself up by dissing others. Unwise to be sure.
A devoted fan since Holiday season in 2005, I stopped on his show, his accent caught my attention but his brillant comedy and his interviewing technique that would be well serve as an example to those other Late night host. After converting my husband to the show, I continue to Tivo the shows when I don't have time or I can't get out of early morning appointment.
Malia/Mary
2 - El Bicho
"so keep your insights to yourself."
Mary, you obviously don't understand the point of a review, although you did prove one of Sombrero's claims, which means his insights are worth considering.
3 - Joanne
I haven't seen the DVD, but I've seen Craig live at least four times and I thought the live performances were 90 times better than his edited standup show.
The tv show was bleeped so often it made the whole program seem second rate. His comedy is great and I think having it bleeped was line having Bono sing without sound.