Lee Evans – Access All Arenas

Christmas is coming and so are all the cash-in comedy DVD’s that the season brings. Luckily this one from master of stand-up Lee Evans is far more than just a greatest hits compendium. The disc is a personal selection of favourite routines introduced by the multi-talented man himself. All of the material is taken from his three arena tours; Wired & Wonderful – Live At Wembley from 2002, XL Tour 2005 and Big – Live At The 02 from 2008 and really does contain the cream of his comedy work.

For those of you new to Evans as a stand-up do be warned he does like to swear a bit, in fact quite a lot so keep Granny in the kitchen. Apart from that all you need to know is that there’s some cracking material here. Evans is a traditional stand-up, most of his material comes from observing real life situations whilst adding a slight hint of surrealness to it. This helps him cross several topics at once combining such themes as horseboxes and their contents and why you should wear all your clothes at once when going on holiday. He also touches on the pain of Chip and PIN which turns into one of his best routines of the lot.

Evans jumps around the stage with so much enthusiasm that you feel out of breath just watching him. Similar to Norman Wisdom in appearance and energy but with more variety he bounds from topic to topic with wild abandon. The swearing does become a tad wearing, some of it unnecessary but one thing is for sure that this compilation showcases what an incredibly talented person Lee Evans is and hopefully he’ll be returning to stand-up very soon.

Extras:

Lee Evans: Even Closer: Fellow comedian Phill Jupitus acts as interviewer in this half an hour Q+A with Mr Evans. More fun than it actually sounds, we get know more about the man behind the stand up and how he prepares for his huge arena shows.

Last Of The Little ‘Uns: The test disc didn’t elaborate on this extra so I’m assuming that is a compilation of pieces from the one of Lee’s earliest tours. It ends with the quite amazing Lee Evens Trio sketch where he mimes all three instruments in a band which is very inventive and hilarious even after repeated viewings.