Frank Skinner Stand-Up (Live from Birminghams NIA) - Region 2 DVD

Frank Skinner Stand-Up was filmed in 2007 at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena, to a crowd of around 5,500 people. Not that you’d ever really know it, as Skinner’s gig makes it all feel so much more intimate. Whether he’s talking about his ‘romantic’ liaisons, singing songs about terrorists or musing on the state of his mind, it’s a razor-tight set, and a very, very funny one.

What Frank Skinner Stand-Up also manages to get across through is the man’s quite brilliant delivery. Camera close ups really get this across, but the timing and tone in which he tells his stories and fires out his punchlines is masterclass material.

Too often written off as a rude and crude performance, Frank Skinner in this gig proves once and for all that he’s one of the cleverest, funniest and most accomplished comedians in the country. And that’s why Frank Skinner Stand-Up, replete with some interesting extra features, is one of the very best comedy DVDs on the market. --Simon Brew