Matt finds JIMMY CARR: IN CONCERT hilarious!

I always look forward to the new Jimmy Carr stand-up DVD every Christmas, it's usually on my list for Santa but this year, I got offered the chance to review the dvd set early and I just couldn't say no. Well I say early, I've ended up missing the release date but still, at least that means I'm now not preaching to the choir (the one's who will by the set on the day of it's release anyway) and instead I'm able to recommend it to everyone else who haven't bought it already or who maybe don't know about Jimmy. Now usually I hate stand-up. Really dislike it. The forced feeling of it all, the lack of subtlety, the way audiences just seem ready to laugh and applaud at anything. The tiresome feeling I always get at the mid-way point for a comic standup is just so frustrating and far too often I have pressed the stop button before a concert has got anywhere near it's conclusion. But I like Jimmy Carr. The self confessed "Joke Technician" whose middle-class sarcasm and highly offensive routine should be familiar to everyone and I dare say, if you haven't liked him as a stand-up before, this probably won't change your mind but if you do, your in for a treat here. Unlike some of his peers, Carr test himself each year by keeping his routine fresh and exciting. He rarely recycles the same joke (I think I heard only one joke that I had heard him say before) and has now grown into the kind of comedian who balances the right blend of quick-fire jokes and word puns, with slightly longer monologues, just to absolute perfection. I'm not a fan of REALLY long monologues but I always like a little substance to my jokes and I think Carr has grown into just the right kind of balancing act as his career has progressed. This stand-up flows better than any of Carr's previous tours and no longer feels like a long list of NEXT JOKE, NEXT JOKE, NEXT JOKE. Which as hilarious as they were, did get a little robotic. It no longer feels like that. This feels like a conversation with Jimmy Carr, just like the Kevin Smith concerts do. But the true test of a stand-up, apart from having of course to be extremely funny (which Carr most certainly is) is when they go for the audience participation and Carr is just extraordinary at this. He is so clever and quick witted, he is able to backfire to any loud mouth talk from an audience member and get the whole place in hysterics. You can tell he really revels in audience participation and actively goes seeking and looking for it and although what he says is highly offensive, his cheeky and "everyone's in on the joke" manner means he gets away with not upsetting anyone. That's despite even insinuating incest to one poor family, but some how it works. And when you do feel like he has gone too far (audience moans, some shuffling) he will just come back with a quick fire joke and all is forgotten. Just, take some advice maybe from Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross and becareful what you say on the BBC! The extra's are good, the DVD has a surprisingly great feature of an animated Jimmy in a showreel which is perfect evidence of what I mean about Carr's ability for great audience participation. Apparently the put-downs were taken from various cities of his tour and it's been animated to protect their integrity.

Jimmy Carr: In Concert is available now from Amazon priced at £11.98 and is highly recommended.