Andy Parsons: Britains Got Idiots DVD review

I’ve always enjoyed Andy Parsons’ stand-up segments on Mock The Week, with his wry, down-to-earth, the-world-is-shit approach generating more laughs than you might expect (and certainly more than he’s given credit for). And his show is a celebration of the shit that surrounds us, as he looks at what’s wrong with Britain, and comes up with one or two ideas to make the world that bit better. It’s a solid theme, that Parsons threads a fine show around.

Parsons is at his best when mocking some of the triviality of modern day Britain. He doesn’t always pick the toughest targets – Trinny and Susannah, Peter Mandelson – but he attacks them well, and consistently picks up the laughs. His bewilderment at the state of British society works well, and his delivery is controlled and very, very effective. Furthermore, he spices up his gig with little clever touches. Here, he’s filmed members of the public taking their seats, and he mines some good material from it too.

He doesn’t hit many high peaks too often thoughout the show, but instead delivers a set that both entertains and amuses for its running time. In fact, I actually saw Parsons perform this show earlier in the year, and rarely, I found the DVD to be better. The show I saw got bogged down in some not-entirely-successful audience interaction, and the tight trimming of Citizens down to 85 minutes has served the show very well indeed. What comes across is a tight act, that Parsons throws his individual delivery style at. It’s a solid performance, that works well on DVD.

The Disc

As one DVD extra demonstrates, quite brilliantly, Parsons isn’t the kind of man who spends too much time looking at the extras. Check out the 12 minute The Incredible Malt Chocolateness Of Extras if you don’t believe us.

There are, however, some solid features here.

How Not To Do A Joke is a three and a half minute segment where Parsons fluffs a gag, and then tries to re-record it with a little help from his audience. It’s a really fun inclusion. As is Parsons Live At The Apollo performance, which is also included on the disc, anad again is worth checking out.

Britain’s Got Idiots including Internet Monologue is the gig replayed  with a commentary from Parsons over the top. There inevitably aren’t too many comments, rather the odd interjection from Parsons, and it’s more of a novelty than anything of much substance. Still, it doesn’t interfere with the gig, so there’s no harm having it on.

It’s not a bad batch of goodies, and the core gig is good too. In short, a solid comedy DVD.

The Show:

The Disc:

Andy Parsons: Britain’s Got Idiots Live is available from the Den Of Geek Store.