Lee Evans Live at her W*****s Theatre (1994)

IMDB User Rating: 7.5/10 (32 votes)

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I am a very big fan of the physical sweating comedian Lee Evans. Every time I see one of his live shows I know it is going to have new mad, wild and ingeniously written and performed comedy from the excellent stand up. This "Live at Her Majesty’s" theatre show does start off a bit corny, but the rest of the show is pretty good. I can’t remember any jokes that were highlights of the show because I haven’t seen it enough times. Also, I don’t know if I actually like this show. All Lee Evans shows are just quality with physical jokes and hilarious bad language, but this isn’t exactly one of the best. This must have been made just after he became popular, so he probably didn’t have that many ideas. Good!

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Lee Evans Live at the West End (1996)

IMDB User Rating: 9.1/10 (34 votes)

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Another instalment of brilliance from the genius that is Lee Evans.

The opening scene involves Lee walking down the street while background snippets are played of his interviews and appearances on shows, and finishes as he is greeted by a strange man and enters the side door of the theatre.

The first sketch is classis Lee as he has to constantly make noise as the spotlight operator has "lost his glasses". Throughout the scene there is a guy in the audience who is obviously a plant; and Lee and this man are constantly competing for the spotlight as he "accidentally" makes noises such as opening crisp packets and such. This goes on for a while until he is thrown out by security and the show continues.

The stage is not that impressive along with the lighting and compared to the more recent shows, the crowd is tiny; which is surprising as he had just finished starring opposite Jerry Lewis in the acclaimed feature film "Funny Bones" and had finished starring in his own hit TV show "The World of Lee Evans". But despite the sub standard setting he still manages to turn out one hilarious anecdote after the other.

One sketch that really sticks in my memory includes a story in which he asks a person for directions in a busy place. It turns out that the guy is a complete moron and with Lees’ visual effects and comic voices a classic sketch is born; I have since then seen this story being told by him in more recent shows such as Wired and Wonderful.

As always he presents himself in a three piece suit, which after thirty minutes is drenched in sweat. Most people will just use the microphone for its original purpose, but in Live from the West End as in his other performances it is an active prop, which plays a role in some of his more graphic sketches.

Lee spends several minutes slaying Christmas traditions, from the now "sophisticated" carol singers, and old people blaming their constant falling over on the ice on bad shoes.

Do you believe that sperm prepare for a long distance swim and are encouraged by lifeguards in speedboats to be the first to the finish line? Lee certainly does. That hilarious sketch follows into a dramatisation of women giving birth, which includes one frustrated woman showing a man just how much childbirth really hurts.

Even if you don’t like Lee in the slightest, you can not help but cry with laughter at his finale which basically includes Lee putting hand gestures to the classic ballad by Queen, bohemian rhapsody.

This is just another 67 minutes of classic comedy from a classic comedian. A must have for Lee Evans fans and comedy fans alike.

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Lee Evans Different Planet Tour (1996)

IMDB User Rating: 8.1/10 (31 votes)

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From the start of this entertaining piece, which kicks off with a comic entrance, you just know it is going to be a classic Lee Evans performance.

Despite the few slightly tedious sketches such as the over drawn microphone scene at the beginning; it is amazing through and through. It is clear from this performance that 1996 was a good year for Lee.

Unlike many of his more recent comedy performances, there are a lot of one-liners, which along with his other comic stories and hilarious graphic demonstrations that are amazingly relative to real life, provide a of comedy which will keep you clutching your sides for approximately 77 minutes.

He manages to introduce fresh ideas into the imagination of the crowd such as his views on the Olympics, as he scrutinizes many of the events and their qualities, such as the hammer throw (not even a hammer), and the sprinting (why do you have to run anti-clockwise?).

I have watched this performance many, many times along with his other shows and it never fails to still make me chuckle after all this time. And as well as the overall brilliance of the show, as always he ends it on a musical note as he displays his musical talent as well as comic genius.

The lovable and breathtakingly brilliant physical comedian Lee Evans opened his Different Planet Tour on the 6th of February and over the following 8 weeks spanned 4,500 miles in 63 different towns, in which he played to over 200,000 people. With the amazing sold out tour keeping so many people entertained, it must be worth a watch.

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Lee Evans Live In Scotland (1998)

IMDB User Rating: 9.5/10 (99 votes)

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I bought this dvd from Virgin when they had an offer on buy 5 for 30 and i could only find four that i wanted and it has proved to be one of my best buys ever.

Lee Evans (Monkey man) is so funny all his gags are based on thing in every day life like when shops check your notes to make sure its real he says we should check our change and he is so right but the way he says things are so funny.

He uses facial expresion for everything he says and does he has got a Jim Carey type rubber face.

He involves the audience whenever he can like when someone goes to the toilet he asks there friends for there name and show them up but in such a good way.

Ive seen quite a few comedy dvds and this is far better than any other.

If you see the Peter Kaye ones you will see that he uses a few of the same jokes / gags and as this was out long before Peter Kaye i can only assume that this is where he got them.

All in all this dvd is a must see and seems to get funnier every time you watch it well recommended.

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Lee Evans Wired and Wonderful Live at Wembley (2002)

IMDB User Rating: 8.2/10 (112 votes)

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After receiving this DVD as a christmas present I was delighted, I have always loved watching Lee Evans as in my opinion he is THE best comedian around. I soon settled down to watch it hoping I wasn’t to be disappointed.

The DVD starts off a bit slowly, Lee Evans is a bit nervous and it shows as he struggles to start, 5 minutes later however and you forget all about this as he soon has you in stitches, it speaks volumes if you have the ability to make 10,000 people laugh.

The thing that makes Lee Evans funny (in my opinion) is the fact that most if not all of his sketches are based on real life occurances that we can all relate to, the amount of times during the DVD you think ‘oh yeah!’ is unbelievable.

Lee Evans is one of the most active comedians around, dancing around the stage doing actions to all his words, it is no wonder that it doesn’t take long before his is dripping (literally) with sweat, he often rubs down with a towel, and despite changing suits at the interval it isn’t long before that too is drenched in sweat. The funny faces Evans also makes just adds to the comedy value.

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Lee Evans XL Tour 2005

IMDB User Rating: 9.4/10 (80 votes)

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I didn’t know that Lee Evans was a stand-up comedian until minutes before I watched this show after a friend was very enthusiastic about him, I barely knew him at the back of my mind as that chap from Mousehunt.
However, the two+ hours I spent watching this strange man wander around onstage were two of the funniest hours I can remember!
The way Lee Evans does his comedy is very emotive. He runs about stage, putting on silly walks, miming things, and gets angry! This makes it much more entertaining to watch than a stand-up who just stands up, and adds a lot more impact to each of his anecdotes.
For Evans is an anecdotal comedian, he tells stories and discusses things, he doesn’t resort to one-liners at all, which makes listening to him interesting as well as hilarious.
In this performance he covers a wide array of topics, from knives in debenhams, through holidays, to horse racing! Each of these are illustrated with a depiction of the characters involved, i.e. he does many an impression! Whilst these all tend to revolve around putting on a silly face, they do add variety. He also makes a lot of noises to further illustrate his stories and bring them to life, particularly banging stuff with his microphone.

The length of this show is outstanding, nearly two and a half hours of pure side splitting fun, where most comedians only go for little over an hour! I could imagine myself getting bored towards the end of it, by Evans kept me entertained throughout.

As I have said, this was the first Evans show that I have watched. However, I have since watched other, older shows and have noticed that some of the material in these older ones has been repeated and changed only very slightly in XL, which could bring the rating of this show down for experienced Lee Evans users. This doesn’t happen too often though and he does adapt the material slightly so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

At the end of his stand-up talking routine, he changes costume and performs an eleven minute song. This is a very weird end to the feature, and can leave you feeling like you’ve changed to watching something completely different, so this was a very peculiar choice for inclusion.

Another negative point is the fact that sometimes the voices he puts on can get a bit waring and are perhaps offensive, they’re all very feminine or sound like they’re meant to represent mentally people, which be construed as him making fun of ‘camp’ homosexuals and the less mentally capable. This can get a bit grating at times, but despite this they do make him unique amongst comedians so I wouldn’t weight this point too heavily compared to the plus sides.

This show is definitely worth a watch, if you’re up for some good no-brained humour, though if you want political satire, you’d more advised to look elsewhere!

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