Frank Skinner Stand-Up

DVD review

When the doyen of conversational stand-up returned to live comedy after a ten-year gap, he came with a certain reputation. Frank Skinner had become branded a laddish comedian, the Black Country oik who talks about nothing about sex and football, a stand-up for the Zoo and Nuts brigade. But that’s to miss the point, as many would-be copycat comics have done. Yes Skinner does indeed talk about sex a lot; but it’s not funny because it’s filthy, it’s funny because it’s honest, well-observed, and with a solid gag tagged on the end. That much of it happens to be about sex is almost coincidental. He’s not boastful about the conquests he tallied up in his early days on the road, but simply takes them as a staring point for entertaining anecdotes. And there’s surprisingly limited bad language –he recently revealed, he decided to exorcise all but the crucial swear words – and sometimes he even feigns a coyness when it comes to a word that doesn’t meet his approval. It’s not all sex, though: there are also routine ranging from his optimistically titled mid-life crisis at 50 to being bitten by a horse, all told with a lightness of touch. The main thing that comes across on this DVD is what an utter natural Skinner is on stage. He seems to be just having a chat, but the art is that the apparently easy-going conversation is peppered with well-placed gags, some blatant, some subtle, to keep the laughs coming.
Sample joke:'When a new paedophile comes to town, does he seek out an older, more experienced paedophile and ask, ‘where are the best places round here to, you know, pick up kids?’ and does the older paedophile say: ‘Well, swings and roundabouts really…’

Extras: Billionaires, an eight-minute routine that somehow wasn’t in the main bit. Plus a ten-minute backstage bit, mainly of Frank fretting about the giant picture of him on stage.
Recorded at: NIA, Birmingham	To buy:
Main show running time: 89 mins
Certificate: 15
Release date: November 10, 2008
RRP: £21.99