Artie Lange – Jack & Coke (2009/Image DVD)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C Concert: B-
Artie Lange has made the rounds on everything from The Howard Stern Show, to MADtv to Rescue Me to The Norm Show
and a few bad feature films. But he is a
stand-up comic at heart and shows this in the uneven new concert release Jack & Coke. It is an interesting concert with explicit
language as rough as anything we have seen on DVD, yet it happens with more of
a comic timing than most other comics his age or younger are apparently capable
of.
He struggles here though the show at times, despite the
audience seeming to be with him.
However, as we were going through the disc, we found out that horribly,
he was having personal issues and tried to destroy himself with a knife. This is awful, especially for someone around
so long in the business who has talent who you would hope would be well, but
apparently was not. I then was reminded
of John Belushi trying to perform drugged-up before leaving Saturday Night Live and it all made
sense. Still, Lange is very good here
and if you can handle the language, you will be surprised, which is all the
more reason his 1/2/10 suicide attempt still shocks. Maybe it was the holiday blues, as all comedians
cannot be happy and laughing al the time.
We wish him well and hope he will be fine.
The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is on the soft side despite
being a new shoot, though color is still good enough, but for having been
issued on Blu-ray is odd this is not anamorphically enhanced. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is better, but
basic for this kind of stand-up taping.
Extras include a six-part behind-the-scenes section that shows Artie’s
Fans, a direct backstage look at the show, Song by ReSurch, Hecklers &
Extras Jokes and more jokes by Pete Dominick & Joe Matarese.
- Nicholas Sheffo
