Top comedy DVDs

It’s nowhere near Christmas, but we don’t care. Here are some comedy DVDs that are good all year round. Or maybe for birthdays or Mother’s Day or something.

Stewart Lee- If You Prefer a Milder Comedian Please Ask For One

Pretty much every Stewart Lee DVD is worth owning, but for me (Jack) personally this one edges it, and it might be the fact he has to have an argument about the colour of two Café Nero stamps with a stubborn Glaswegian man.

Having seen this live it’s a very faithful capturing of the show, particularly when Lee goes off-mic and runs upstairs into the balcony towards the end. It also features two of his best routines: one about Top Gear and one about pears.

Josie Long -Trying is good

Josie’s only DVD to date, and it’s a corker. It not only include 2008’s Trying is Good, in which she throws satsumas out to the audience for good behaviour, but also a slightly low-fi black and white version of her 2007 show “’Kindness and Exuberance”.

Plus it has a bloomin’ funny commentary by Josie herself which is something I’d like to see more of with these DVDs. And another thing I’d like to see is another Josie DVD showcasing her more political side.

Zach Galifianakis – Live At The Purple Onion

Half stand up show half fake documentary filmed in part in a seemingly claustrophobic fire hazard of a room in LA, Live at the Purple Onion shows this now Hollywood actor before he was the wild man’s Seth Rogen.

I’ve never seen a Zach Galifianakis film (except Youth In Revolt, but he’s barely in that so it doesn’t count, okay? Okay!) and I’m not sure if I want to. I’d like to remember him like this, sitting by a piano while banging the same not over and over again while somebody gets him a beer.

Some of the references may be unfamiliar to non- Americans and at an hour long, it’s a little short, but it’s still amazing, pure stand-up.

Simon Munnery – Hello

Thank god for Go faster stripe. Otherwise there may not be any Munnery to enjoy in your on home.

Hello includes some of the smartest and most creative comedy routines ever seen. The classic “as close as comedy gets to modern art” routine is here, as is Alan Parker urban warrior and my favourite  – the Security Guard.

Another part worth remarking on is “one down” which tells the story of the two criminals who were next to Jesus on the cross.

And there is also rare footage of his former double act God & Jesus, which is nice.

Simon Amstell- Do Nothing

By far and away, one of the best stand-ups in the country. It’s refreshing to see a comic give so much of themselves in a performance, his neurosis on display for all to see.

When his opening line of the night is “I’m very lonely, let’s talk about that” and his catchphrase is “Death is coming” it doesn’t sound like a recipe for a funny show, but it never feels overbearing.

An inability to connect that is easy to connect with.