It has been a funny time for Jack Dee over the past few years.  'Funny' as in 'odd', rather more than 'Funny' as in 'ha ha ha ho ho ho'.  There was the whole Celebrity Big Brother affair, his recent admission that he has been suffering from a recurring alcohol problem, and the nagging feeling (at least prior to the Big Brother thing) that the general public had been starting to recognise him as 'that bloke in those John Smiths adverts' (which all things considered is not ideal).  With this turbulent string of events, it's easy to forget that Jack is still one of Britain 's veteran, leading stand-up comics.  At least that is what his current shows are trying to re-affirm.

The reason Jack Dee is touring again at the moment is to try out new material on his audience in the run up to forthcoming television shows to be produced later this year.  As Jack put it, it's similar to the way car manufacturers test prototype cars in wind-tunnels, "only in comedy you get to sell the car to the customers at that point too."  He was able to use the pretence of trying out new material to his benefit, having the luxury of being able to 'write-off' any jokes that didn't work (and there were a few), as well as being able to check his notes whenever he needed to (something he did within the flow of the performance, and generally to one form of comic effect or another). 

So what was the show like?  Well the first thing we should point out is that this is not a fresh new set of unheard material being tentatively aired for the first time.  Well over half of the routines are from Jacks well established stock of previous material.  Because much of this material has been well aired in the past in his numerous video, television and audio recordings, many of the audience will have been familiar with much of the set, even if they had never seen him live.  However, this did not detract from the performance, as the classic material was lapped-up by the audience.  And we have to agree, it still raises some great laughs.

Of course there was a reasonable amount of new material in the set, which was generally up to Jack's previous high standard, and consistent with his well-recognised 'deadpan' delivery and persona.   It was evident that some of the gags were not fully polished yet, and would be toned-up as his tour went on, much like the car in the wind-tunnel gets rounder, pointer edges (ed - Wow, this analogy just goes on and on, thanks Jack!)

Jack also used some of the cliché pieces that now seem to be used in 'most' regional shows.  People who only get to gigs in London may not be aware of this, but when the bigger names in comedy do more local or rural locations, they now almost all seem to do a few pieces on the local newspaper.  This involves taking along a copy of that days local paper and picking out a few humorous or mundane items, to highlight how rural and mundane they are.  I have seen this piece many times in recent years from a number of comedians, and although it can help to build up a quick local rapport, it really is becoming a bit of a hack.

Those of you familiar with Jack Dees shows may remember that he often asks the audience to write comments and notes to him throughout the show or in the interval for him to read out or mock later.  Now, as we are in the 21st century (the first bit of it I think) Jack has updated this process.  It no longer includes a biro and a notepad at the corner of the stage.  Instead he gives out his mobile number and asks the audience to text him during the show, which allows him to humorously comment on the texts later in the evening.  Although this sort-of worked technically, the performance looses some of it's pace seeing someone navigating through the menus on their mobile phone and trying to delete messages to free up some memory to download the next batch of texts.

So the conclusion?  Over all, good.  Jack still packs the same comic punch that he always has.  His observant material and distinctive delivery still means you are pretty much guaranteed an evening of laughs.  And although these are "warm-up" shows for some future "main event", any true Dee fan has no excuse for missing them.

7th April 2004 at Clair Theatre, West Sussex