Tommy Tiernan - OK Baby

One of the oddities of 21st century Ireland, is that an impulse purchase of a DVD at 2am in your local supermarket, is no longer a dream - its a reality. And the other night between fondling mangoes and stroking bananas I came across the DVD rack at tesco, where I spotted the latest Offering from Irelands favourite Comedian. I tossed it merrily in my basket..

I hastened to the self-service check-out, where as usual my haste was stunted by the frustration of trying to scan my own goods. As I swung a packet of rich tea biscuits with my left, and a cadburys cream egg with my right I failed to register any satisfying "BLEEP". I repeated my swing left and right each time varying the angle and the depth of the swings, no doubt akin from afar to some lunatic trying to conduct an imaginary orchestra! Head down, Left-right, Left-right......
"BLEEP"
Thank God...
Just twenty more items....

About an hour later I left and headed for home.

A large pot of tea was brewed, and the newly purchased rich-tea biscuits were opened for this special occassion. The Selophane wrapper was removed and the disc inserted to the player. Headphones on, there could be no volume control here, we needed to hear the jokes, the laughter - The Master!

Sit Back and enjoy,

Or not.....

It seems this paticular show was filmed during a Dublin comedy festival last june. The fact that this was six-months before his latest live-show Bovinity may have been the reason for this poor showing.

There were flashes of the Tommy of Old, the Tommy we all know and love, Jokes about being your average Irish Bloke, jokes about living in ireland. He made me laugh out loud a couple of times, but only a couple of times.

There was some sex-jokes that were unnecessarily over the top, and at least one about different people laid out on beds... An irish woman with a person with a bad polish accent, and even some bizzarre piece about the Irish President, Mary Mc Alleese.

It seemed that Tommy thought maybe he had to be controversial. I am not sure. I mean Controversial, just doesnt work any more. Reality TV shows have lowered the effectiveness of controversy to nil or below. It can also be argued that at a live comedy show there is a unique relationship between comic and audience and what may seem risque afterward was merely a bit of in-the-spirit-of-the-moment ad-libbing. This may be the case, but it should not then be packaged and foisted upon an unsuspecting midnight shopper!

I did enjoy parts of the show, but Tiernan didnt seem in control of the performance, and the jokes and/or routines seemed half baked. A few times throughout the show I got the feeling that he knew the Material wasn't working and he merely moved on, abandoning a piece and starting a new one.

I didnt manage to get along to see "Bovinity" at Christmas, But I hope he had gotten his act together by then. This show just seemed ill conceived, unpolished or just plain Lazy. Put TT on and they will come! And they did, but for how long?? If Tiernan had any artistic temperament, then he would never have let this show out on disc. He would have cut his losses, and taken the financial hit. I just hope he wasnt begginning to feel a downward spiral and was making hay while the sun shined. Maybe his almost constant shouting throughout this show, was born out of frustration with a failing talent...

But I suspect that he was just being sloppy, or Lazy. And he said to hell with them, they'll buy it.
I hope I am right and that Irelands favourite comedian comes back, and shrugs off this set back. I hope Bovinity was better. I hope people give him another chance.