Stephen K Amos: Find The Funny Live DVD review

You don’t get a particularly long gig on Stephen K Amos’ debut stand-up DVD, given that the main feature is done by the 59 minute mark. But don’t let that put you off. For while there are DVDs that do give you more for your money, Find The Funny Live nonetheless boasts a solid hour of comedy entertainment.

The show on this DVD was recorded in Australia, which does create one or two problems for a UK audience given the Aussie-specific references he throws in once or twice (although he does get some nice laughs out of Fosters lager as a result). But the majority of the material nonetheless hits the target quite well, and Amos is always steering the gig to ensure suitably broad appeal. His delivery is as strong as always, and his material regularly generates good, solid laughs.

Most of his show comes across as an extended chat with his audience, and certainly the crowd at The Enmore Theatre in Sydney serve him very well indeed. They give him a lot to work with, and react well to his routines and jokes. What’s more, Amos himself is a very talented worker of an audience, interspersing conversations with his crowd with his own anecdotes and stories from his past.

Furthermore, Amos gets a good chunk of his material exploring race, and reactions to it. And one particular routine shows Amos’ strength in building up anticipation, talking about a particular brand of cheese and working extra laughs out of how his audience responds to it. He actually uses this approach a few times, and again, it serves him well.

It’s a solid gig in all, from a very talented stand-up performer.

The extras are quite interesting. You get an interview with Amos that’s mixed in with audience vox pops. But if you can get over the fact that he asks himself the questions, he does bother to come up with interesting answers. The interview runs for around ten minutes.

The next extra is a special guest appearance by an African Prince, which of course is Amos again. The video quality of this is quite poor, to be fair, and it’s a routine that seems to have been recorded in London. But again, it’s fine, and a welcome inclusion.

Finally, you get an outtake from the start of the show where a member of Amos’ audience has put the cheese that’s referred to in the show on the stage (as well as the point later in the gig when he refers to it again). Amos deals with this expertly, and again, it shows his off-the-cuff work to be very strong. It tops off a better than usual smattering of extras for a comedy DVD.

The Show:

The Disc:

Stephen K Amos: Find The Funny Live is out now and available from the Den Of Geek Store.