Sean Lock Live

DVD review

This has been a long time coming: eight years after being named best stand-up at the British Comedy Awards and being nominated for the Perrier, Sean Lock finally releases his first stand-up DVD. That vast experience means he has the skill of an artisan and a wealth of material to draw upon. This show, therefore, has a substance and depth that might come as a surprise to those who know him only from 8 Out Of 10 Cats. In the age of instant celebrity, there’s no substitute for having served your apprenticeship. His manner is superficially dry and sarcastic, but that disguises a sly playfulness in his thinking, which means the routine can spin out in all manner of unexpected directions, whatever the subject matter. He’s also wryly playful with his own supposed lack of skill, and the artifice of stand-up in a way that only someone confident in their own abilities can be. A whole career’s worth of stand-up has been compressed into these 79 minutes, which does therefore include a few ‘greatest hits’ routines, including the bizarre ending which leaves the gig descending into casual disarray as punters from the audience feel free to lob all sorts of odd questions at him.
Sample joke: ‘ They say, don’t they, that a woman’s work is never done. Perhaps that’s why they get paid less than men ’

Extras: His half-hour set from BBC One’s Live At The Apollo; a 17-minute documentary This Is What I’m Like, that may not be 100 per cent accurate
Recorded at: Hammersmith Apollo, London	To buy:
Main show running time: 79 mins
Certificate: 15
Release date: November 17, 2008
RRP: £19.99