Johnny Vegas Live at the Benidorm Palace (2009)

More Info: Amazon.co.uk

Plot: Filmed live at the Benidorm Palace, in front of a truly up for it, sell-out crowd. Johnny cuts loose with his own inimitable style of stand-up, sing-along, and of course live pottery.

My Rating: 6/10

Would I watch it again? Sadly, no.





I discovered Johnny Vegas when, in my ongoing quest for something new to satiate my love of British TV comedy, I came across IDEAL (2005), a show about a Moz (Vegas), a dealer of hash and weed who rarely ever leaves his apartment. The first episode didn't really get the laughs I expected but it was with the second episode that I really fell in love with all of the characters and wanted to stick around to learn more about them. It's not the kind of comedy show you would expect, with x laughs per minute but it is loaded fair share of gut wrenchers. It's the characters you grow to love that make that show as great as it is.


So imagine how stoked I was to see Vegas do something different than the five series of IDEAL I had watched at least twice. Sigh...I guess I don't dig his stand up. I don't mind his style, it's just that I didn't think it was funny.


What WAS funny, and fucking hilarious at that, was his physical comedy with the pottery wheel at the end. THAT was funny. Apparently he studied pottery in college and he's embraced it for some laughs.


Here's a clip from an Australian show that's not unlike what he did here except in
the routine I watched he doesn't really say much and he enlists the help of a female audience member.

While I'm bummed that his stand up doesn't live up to my expectations based on what I've seen of him in IDEAL, it won't stop me from seeing another stand up performance if and when another one comes along. He's a very funny fellow. Series 6 of IDEAL begins next week and I think it's time to check out BENIDORM, a TV comedy he's been in since 2007.