The Dave Allen Show In Australia (Umbrella Entertainment DVD Set/Region Zero/0/PAL)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Episodes: C-

 

 

PLEASE NOTE: This DVD can only be operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region Zero PAL format software and can be ordered from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment at the website address provided at the end of the review.

 

 

I don’t know what I was expecting, but for all the critical accolades about how funny he is or supposed to be, I found Dave Allen a one-joke guy who was never funny, always on the edge of self-deprecation of some sort and making know-it-all observations that are “funny” but not funny.  Maybe The Dave Allen Show In Australia (1975 – 1977) is not the man at his best and he passed on in 2005, but it never added up to any laughs and hardly any smiles.

 

Maybe it is some kind of acquired taste (and I will not talk about vegemite and Men At Work) but these half-hours shows across two DVDs offer skits, gags and much sit-around-as-stand-up-comedy.  He was a genius of some kind, I guess and I am a fan of British humor, but I will give him credit for being somewhat subversive.  Maybe his other material will work better, somewhere.

 

The 1.33 X 1 PAL color videotaped image shows its age, but looks good and is consistent from show to show.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is equally good for its age and I never found it a problem to hear any of the jokes.  Two trailers for other Umbrella DVD releases are included.

 

 

As noted above, you can order this PAL DVD import set exclusively from Umbrella at:

 

http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo