Jack Dee Live at the Apollo - ooh, edit news...

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

They showed the Ross Noble one instead of Omid Djalili.

Iraq references? I don't know.

Is it just me, or is Noble's one-note surrealism the most over-rated thing it's possible to watch?

[Rats]

I've no idea how he got so big. He must think "if I keep going long enough, this'll start being funny" but it starts off unfunny and ends up being embarassing, sometimes it'll works and he can be alright, not enough to put him on the telly though. I don't like the voice he does either, that voice that lauren lavern does when she's telling a joke as well. We're not all that annoying, I promise.

[Goldentony]

he goes on about the same thing for too long mr noble (meat gluing to face) but the bit about the pensioners orbiting his wife was pretty good.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

It's like some kind of comedy committee had watched lots of Richard Pryor and Eddie Izzard videos one night and created a cuddlesome, it'll-appeal-to-all-ages hybrid of the two. There's something really hollow about him, even when you think 'that's vaguely funny'.

It's not as if his timing's even that good. It's not like Izzard wheere you might think 'How did he come up with that idea?' or Pryor where you might think 'How does he get that face so spot-on?'. He's not awful, but he's pretty bland. Why is he rated so highly?

[Goldentony]

cos he's a bit wacky and 'da kidz' like the idea of a giraffe riding a bike and reading womans weekly or something like that.

[Rev]

That was weird.  After he'd been on for about ten minutes, I just seemed to stop listening to him.  It was just a load of white noise.  Nothing to latch on to at all.

[Bert Thung]

Because he was good at put downs when compering Late and Live five years ago.

This has blinded people to the fact his material's quite  lame, and like every other comedian that's meant to appeal to students, he does stupid kung fu poses in his publicity photos.

[alan strang]

A poor man's Phil Kay.

It says a lot that he had to keep reminding the audience how wacky and surreal  he was in real life. It just reminded me of Rick in The Young Ones showing off to Neil's parents - "You have to watch out for me 'cos I'm a bit nutty! Aren't I, everyone - a bit nutty! (blows raspberry)"

Still, he only mentioned monkeys once, give him that...

[The Region Legion]

Why is the title of this thread "Jack Dee LIve At The Apollo - edit news..." ?

[Rev]

Because of the re-shuffling, ooobviously, and equally obviously, you're drawing attention to the fact that nobody's discussing the possible reasons for this happening.  Either that or I'm over-thinking things again.

Iraq references are pretty much a given, but I suspect that there was a reference to beheading in this one.  Give it a fortnight and all that nasty business wil have been forgotten, so it'll be safe to show it.

[Jemble Fred]

This was actually my first experience of Noble doing full-on stand-up. I think he's great on Just A Minute, but within five minutes I found him utterly mind-numbing. Switched over for a bit, watched a good chunk of BBC 2, ITV News, a bit of Channel 4 – returned to BBC 1 what felt like ten minutes later and he was still banging on about meat on his head or something.

Off.

[Spiteface]

Ross Noble does Stand-up comedy like I think thoughts in my head.

Not that I've ever contemplated gluing meat to my head, mind. I just do ramble on in my mind when alone.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Yeah, like white noise - that's exactly what I thought. A horribly boozy fog of nothing.

[zozman]

All of that material was from his recent Noodlemeister tour.  Most of it was pretty good first time round, but it dated quite badly (that meat thing went on for about twice as long as it should have done).  I do quite like Ross Noble but it wasn't his best performance last night.

I'm pretty sure that Omid Djalili was pulled because of references to Iraq given that poor fucker about to be beheaded.

[Village Branson]

I got the feeling that his material was all stuff he'd just improvised in the past-seeing him take something like sponge hands and go on about them for five minutes just off the top of his head would be quite impressive. Watching him go through it as a routine just wasn't.

He's a bit like Paul Merton-they can both think of funny things off the top of their head, but ask them to write a script and it doesn't quite come together.

[Jemble Fred]

He's a bit like Paul Merton-they can both think of funny things off the top of their head, but ask them to write a script and it doesn't quite come together.

What? Have you never seen Paul Merton- The Series? Entirely written by him and John Irwin, and one of the best sketch shows ever made IMO? And does this include the books 'History of the Twentieth Century' and 'My Struggle'? Superb stuff throughout.

Merton's a fine writer, and damn better at it than he is at presenting TV shows.

[chand]

I've no idea how he got so big.

I know his live shows are very popular, the people I know who regularly watch stand-up rate him very highly. I saw him live once and must admit I really enjoyed myself, it works well in a room full of people who are in the mood for it.

Didn't think it was very good last night, mainly because of the overlong meat-gluing thing, but I did laugh a few times, more than I did for Jack Dee's short bits (though I liked his reference to doing any old shite for adverts).

[Beagle 2]

I really just thought this was gut-wrenchingly awful, I actually felt for the guy although the audience seemed to be lapping it up. "wouldn't it be maaad if you just, like, stuck some meat to your face? That would be bonkers though wouldn't it? Eh? I am mad though aren't I?". No. Fuck off.

[Village Branson]

What? Have you never seen Paul Merton- The Series?

I don't think I have seen all of it, I must admit, though I did like what I saw.

That Paul Merton special on BBC2 with Leslie Ash happened to be going through my mind when I made the comparison. Looking at the list of stuff he's written for, only Paul Merton-The Series stands out.

There's a difference between things that are funny because someone's just thought of them, and things that have been written beforehand, and I think both Noble and Merton are better at thinking on their feet.

[Partridge's Love Child]

I too had never actually seen him do stand-up before.  I've always liked him in interviews and stuff, but this didn't make me laugh at all.  I fell asleep in fact.

As for the Merton thing, I love The Series (the first series of which I recently picked up in a charidee shop) and also loved Terry & Julian which he co-wrote with John Henderson (who?) and Julian Clary.  I think he's a much bigger talent than Ross Noble - I particularly think this after watching that drivel last night.

It's funny that Spiteface should mention that Noble does comedy like he thinks, because something similar went through my head.  Bloody hell, I thought, if this is all you have to do to be branded a comic genius, then perhaps I should just go on and talk bollocks.  My mind seems to work similarly, and I dare say it'd be funnier than Noble's set last night.

It's a shame Bob Monkhouse is dead, he'd have been brilliant on this show I reckon.

[Darrell]

As for the Merton thing, I love The Series (the first series of which I recently picked up in a charidee shop)

That's actually three compilations of the six episodes, together with two unaired sketches (after much head-scratching I finally solved the mystery of which ones they were - and that's the Crime Prevention sketch, and the Merton/Mullarkey Job Interview two-hander of the sort they'd do more of in series two). It was released to tie in with the transmission of series 2.

That release was called 'Paul Merton - The Video' until very late in the day, presumably because they thought it sounded too much like a live video, and so changed it to 'Paul Merton - The Series' at the eleventh hour.

Oh, edit news - in the sketch about the spy being bugged, 'In The Mood' is overdubbed for the video with some random PRS-friendly muzak (with no attempt made to restore the audience laughter that's been silenced), and the final punchline to the sketch (in which the people receiving the bugged transmissions hear In The Mood again) has been cut completely.

Brilliant series.

[sick as a pike]

That's actually three compilations of the six episodes, together with two unaired sketches... brilliant series.

Ah, you might remember about something that's been bugging me for a while.  Is this the series that has a sketch set in a flat, the electricity runs out and when it comes back on the flat's full of unlikely items including (I think) a stuffed Zebra?

[Partridge's Love Child]

The sketch with the meter running out was in series 2.  The non-zebra meter ran out of cash, so one appeared in his bedsit.  The book he's reading in that sketch - The Bap That Ate The World appears in a number of other sketches, fact fans.

And yes, I'm aware that the video is merely a compilation, it was just easier to say "series 1".  But thanks anyway.

[Jemble Fred]

That's actually three compilations of the six episodes, together with two unaired sketches... brilliant series.

Ah, you might remember about something that's been bugging me for a while.  Is this the series that has a sketch set in a flat, the electricity runs out and when it comes back on the flat's full of unlikely items including (I think) a stuffed Zebra?

Half-remembered, there, but yes. Paul sits in the flat. The gas runs out, so he puts cash in the meter. Then the leccy cuts off, so he has to put more cash in. Then a zebra appears, so he has to put 50p in the 'No Zebra' meter.

EDIT: PLC reads my mind then rewinds time, the bitch. That's the only possible answer.

[Darrell]

Is this the series that has a sketch set in a flat, the electricity runs out and when it comes back on the flat's full of unlikely items including (I think) a stuffed Zebra?

Yep - I can't remember whether that's in the first or second series though.

Actually - expanding on that edit stuff above, in that unaired Crime Prevention sketch on the video, Merton is reading a book with a silly name (The Burger From Outer Space or something along those lines). Anyway, it reappears in the second series - presumably Merton liked the prop and wanted it to be shown on TV, presumably unbeknowst that it was going to appear on video.

EDIT: Beaten twice!

[Partridge's Love Child]

Between us we got there.  It was The Bap From Outer Space now I think about it.

[sick as a pike]

Thanks all.  I was asking because in the early part of my 'career' I was sending unsolicited material to people, including to Paul Merton.  One of the pieces I sent was a sketch with the electricity meter and the Zebra as briefly described in my earlier post.  Then a few months later I saw the non-Zebra meter one broadcast.  I always wondered if he'd read what I sent and it had a subconscious effect, or if it was just coincidence.

[Beagle 2]

Well this was another pile of crap last night, I thought I'd give Jo Brand a chance because I like her, despite never actually finding her particularly funny, but it was baaad. I just gave up and started wailing in anguish when she started with the "hey don't blokes make a right meal out of being ill...." stuff.

"I'm happily married....Me husbands not but fuck him!". Pah, It was like watching the inverse Bernard Manning.

Where's Sean Hughes by the way? Haven't seen him do stand up in ages. Haven't seen hima at all in ages in fact.

[Purple Tentacle]

Well I've always liked Jo Brand and I thought that was pretty good, some nice gags.... it got oddly personal when she talked about how everybody assumed she was a lesbian, and always gets called "Ms", but I enjoyed it.

"You won't be seeing me later.... because I'll be sitting on your face."

Yeah, I thought it was alright. And she's stopped shouting "ERM!" in between her jokes, which was the thing that used to irritate the most.

I wonder if they'll ever repeat that show she did with Ricky Grover shot in faux-documentary style? I quite enjoyed that at the time.


There were a lot of fucks, mostly from Dee, weren't there? I was very surprised at BBC1, how come they still cut films to pieces but allow forty-fucks-a-minute on that show?  You couldn't make it up.

[Beagle 2]

And she's stopped shouting "ERM!" in between her jokes, which was the thing that used to irritate the most

That and "But-err..."

Dunno, maybe i'm being harsh I did switch it off half way through. I don't want the image of Brand and Tickle doing rude things together though.

I remember finding her series a bit naff, do you mean the one with "drudge squad" in it?