Having seen Johnny Vegas doing the rounds on TV recently, and never having seen his stand-up act, I was impressed by his quick wittedness accompanied by moments of occasional off-the-cuff genius, his unplanned sharing of Dustin Hoffman's acceptance speech at the Empire movie awards being a particular highlight.

So, the announcement of Vegas's first live standup DVD was an exciting prospect, billed as a return to his roots and promising to be one of the comedy DVD releases of the year.  It was therefore surprising, not to mention disappointing, to sit watching the entire DVD with the only barrier between my finger and the Stop button being the knowledge that this review had to be written.

"Who's Ready For Ice Cream?" is a confused affair that doesn't seem to know what it wants to be.  The idea is that it's a mockumentary about Johnny Vegas's return to his stand-up roots at the Edinburgh festival that sees him forced to perform in a tiny venue, share a flat with a mentally deranged comic, be publicly humiliated (to bring him "down to earth") and meet the demands of his sole sponsor; an ice cream man.

This premise, done well, could have led to some great embarrassment and discomfort based comedy, a la "The Office".  Instead the discomfort comes from the lack of humour and waiting for "Johnny Vegas's first live stand-up DVD" to actually provide the viewer with some live stand-up.   A particular low point of this "comedy" documentary were the attempts to discredit Vegas by spreading rumours he has AIDS.  Not big, not clever, not black comedy, not funny.

And so, reaching the stand-up sections of the DVD one is left hoping that the preceding material was all just a terrible mistake and that this is where Mr Vegas will redeem himself.  Unfortunately it is his material that lets him down.  There is no doubting his skill at handling an audience and putting down hecklers with military precision, it is easily the highlight of his act, but it's not enough for an entire show and his pre-written material suffers badly alongside his spur of the moment spontaneity.

It's fair to say, of the stand-up, that something may have been lost in the translation to the screen and with the atmosphere of an intimate comedy club they could have seemed like entirely different shows.  However, unless you were actually an audience member and are buying this DVD as a memento, that's no consolation to the average viewer.  The mockumentary sections were generally dire.  A darkly funny performance by comedian Tony Burgess, as Vegas's flatmate Tony Kanna, was the only redeeming feature and almost, but not quite, made the rest of it worth sitting through.

If after all that you still want more then there are a host of extras on offer including deleted scenes, out-takes and a further stand-up performance entitled "Tough Crowd".  This is easily the best stand-up section on the DVD as it sees the most audience interaction and gives Vegas the chance to flex his improvisational muscles.  Whether or not it's worth buying a DVD just for an extra feature is a decision you have to make for yourselves.