Paddy McGuinness - Live (DVD)

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Paddy McGuinness Live
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Something that I defiantly didn’t expect, if I am quite honest I did not really think much about this DVD. I have always been a fan of Patrick McGuinness right from the start when he appeared in phoenix nights, don’t get me wrong he can be a funny guy but not nearly as funny as I expected. As I had really liked the guy and had also loved ...
...funniness was passing on to Paddy and that is why I thought that he was so funny. I don’t like to write negative reviews but this one had to be done, and paddy won’t be reading it anyway as he says that he does not like to read reviews anyway in the DVD which I thought was a bit harsh because he could really learn from some of these.

So after having seen him lots of times and watched all of the series of phoenix nights and also Max ... more

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Paddy McGuinness Live
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Something that I defiantly didn’t expect, if I am quite honest I did not really think much about this DVD. I have always been a fan of Patrick McGuinness right from the start when he appeared in phoenix nights, don’t get me wrong he can be a funny guy but not nearly as funny as I expected. As I had really liked the guy and had also loved it when he had starred in Max and Paddy’s road to nowhere with Peter Kay I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this DVD as I had expected to be rolling round on the floor with laughter like all of the other times that I had seen him with fellow comedian Peter Kay.

Maybe that’s why I thought that he was so good? In those shows he was constantly at the side of Peter Kay which I also admire because of his talent, but maybe some of the funniness was passing on to Paddy and that is why I thought that he was so funny. I don’t like to write negative reviews but this one had to be done, and paddy won’t be reading it anyway as he says that he does not like to read reviews anyway in the DVD which I thought was a bit harsh because he could really learn from some of these.

So after having seen him lots of times and watched all of the series of phoenix nights and also Max and Paddy’s road to nowhere I come to the conclusion that I really wanted to get this DVD. It could be really funny I though to myself and I do really like the man for his talent. So off I went and purchased the DVD from HMV (that’s my favourite store by the way) and found myself buying lots of other films as well, anyways lets save that for other reviews. So I was looking round the store for this DVD and could not find it anywhere so resorting to asking a member of staff where it was they directed me in the right direction and there it was all on its own gleaming with a bright red and white cover with a huge image of Paddy on the front sporting a halo although his shadow in the background was a devil. The cover was very catchy and the fact that it was on its own either meant that it was so rubbish that they didn’t have many in stock or it was so good that they had all sold.

Anyway I went to the till and purchased this DVD with the other films that I had picked up and it cost me £12.99. That’s for the Paddy McGuinness Live DVD by the way. So off I went home really anxious about watching it as I thought it was going to be so good I couldn’t wait. I made myself comfy got lots of “munch” and then put it on. At first glimpse it looked quite good only to be scared by Paddy appearing and shouting “that’s the standard tonight, VERY HIGH”, that made me jump quite a bit but still I settled into the mood waiting to laugh my socks off.

So on comes the DVD showing the usual copyright stuff and then a menu appears which allows you to watch the stand-up, choose a chapter or see the special features which I will come to later. Well I selected the main performance option and then sat back to watch. First of all you are greeted by what look like should be in a cartoon as they are almost fairy like, they dance around the stage and that is where Paddy appears, right from the middle of them. Moving on he then has lots of jokes to tell etc which some you can tell that he has used over and over again but some just pop out of nowhere that just relate to what is happening for example there is a man who goes to the toilet in the middle of the act, which if I might say was a huge mistake, Paddy could not wait to make a comment on this.

When he got going some of his jokes and comics actually made me laugh but there was not many, what alerted me the most was the some of the jokes were not entirely original as I had heard some of them on a chubby brown performance that I had seen. I’m not saying that Paddy is a bad stand-up comedian but he is not the best that I have seen and in my opinion he tries to act a very lot like his fellow stand-up Peter Kay which really does not work for him as I there is a huge difference between the two of them. So for me this DVD was quite a let down for me. I did plough on through and watch all of it but it did not get me laughing my socks off like I had expected.

There was one thing that really made me laugh though and it was a really good idea of his. That is when people were entering the venue which was the famous Blackpool Opera House you can ask Paddy a question. Doing this you have to write down your question on a piece of paper and then drop it into the bucket and then towards the end of the show the bucket appears on stage and then he starts to read out some of the questions which is quite amusing but that has got to be the best part of the act. Although for the women it may be a different matter because also towards the end of the act he goes behind a screen and does a kind of raunchy dance to which the audience of 3500 can see a silhouette dancing around etc.

The rating of the DVD is a 15 and that is mainly because there is quite a lot of sexual reference in the act which is the main reason for the tour actually being called “life on the dark side” as he explains at the beginning of his act. Moving on to the special features now. There are several extras that are placed on the DVD which are, a documentary reveals what went on behind the scenes with Paddy’s showbiz friend getting involved, Paddy versus Soccer AM sketch and there is also a photo album which shows all of the images from the preparation to the actual act to the music of “time of my life” at least I think that is what the song is called anyway. All of the special and extra features are quite good and allow for user interaction which is one of the strong points about the DVD.

There are several different chapters in the act that can be chosen from at your choice if you go on to the chapter selector. These chapters are:
- Intro
- A bit of a march out
- Robbie
- The naked truth
- Porn mags
- STD clinic
- Hoodies
- Ask me a question
- Taking the piss
- Ready to rumble
These are all of the chapters that are on the DVD and he goes into each of them with lots of detail. I would like to go in to detail to and explain what happens in each of them but that would spoil the act for the people that have not already seen it.

Coming on to my opinion of the DVD, I thought that it was not the best DVD that I had seen and I learnt that Paddy McGuinness is not all that funny without Peter Kay stood by his side cracking the jokes as well, which is a major downfall for him. Although the act did have some good bits in it, overall it was not that good, but that’s my opinion. Basically if you are a fan of Patrick McGuinness then only buy this DVD if you are a huge fan because if you are used to seeing him with Peter Kay at his side then it is most likely that you will not find this act very funny although some of the comments that are made on the back of the DVD case are, “ABSOLUTLY BRILLIANT, VERY FUNNY”, Nottingham evening post and also “McGUINNESS PROVES HIS STAR QUALITY. I WAS LAUGHING SO HARD I CRIED, I’M TALKING A FULL ON FACE CONTORTING SOBS!”, BBC. This really was not the case for me as throughout most of the act I was not even forced to emitting a chuckle.

Also in the DVD case there is a small leaflet which shows some of the merchandise which can be bought which is related to Paddy McGuinness this can be purchased from the website which is www.paddysshop.com. This is another thing in which I think that he has copied from Peter Kay as a similar thing was inside the Peter Kay DVD which I purchased a few years ago.

Moving on to the end of the review, if you decide that you want to go out and purchase the DVD then you will be able to get it from most good record stores such as HMV and you will also be able to purchase it from places such as Woolworths and Asda etc. the price that I have generally seen the film going for in the last couple of weeks is about £8.99 but can probably be bought for a cheaper price at places such a www.ebay.co.uk and also places like www.play.com where you will find it a considerable amount cheaper. Below is some of the technical stuff about the film and some things that you may like to know before going out and buying the DVD.

Running time – 67mins
Colour mode – colour/PAL
Rating – 15
Resolution – 16:9
Extras:
- Life on the dark side documentary
- Paddy Vs Soccer AM
- Photo Gallery

Thank you for reading this review and I hope to be hearing from you soon. 

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