There are many things that have in the past been a mystery to me.  Things that I have laid awake at night wondering about.  'Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?', 'Is Alphabeti Spaghetti case-sensitive?', 'How much meat do you get on a Borrower?', (for those of you who don't know, borrowers can be eaten served on a stick, like a mini chicken-satay).  One of these mysteries had always been the popularity of Peter Kay.  I had never seen him in a live stand-up performance, so like most people my experience of his work started and ended with his sitcom: Phoenix Nights. 

Phoenix nights is undoubtedly hugely popular, and upon its release became one of the fastest selling DVDs in the UK ever.  But to be honest it had never really done much for me.  I had assumed that maybe I was far too 'Southern' to really get it.  Venturing any further north than Watford leaves me with a fear that at any moment a gang of scousers might car-jack me and drag to off to a small red-brick terrace house on a steep cobble-stone road, to put me in some kind of 'hot-pot'.  All this had left me thinking that maybe Peter Kay is to the Northerners what Steve Coogan is to the Southerners, and never the North/South Divide we shall cross (or something like that).

And so, it was with a great deal of caution and scepticism that I approached Peter Kay's new live DVD & Video: "Peter Kay Live at Bolton Albert Halls".  I was expecting not to like this.  I was expecting to have to sit through 90 minutes of fairly unsophisticated 'old-school' jokes of the style that frequents the rapidly diminishing Northern Workings Men's Clubs.  And when Peter Kay came on stage and began to real off five to ten minutes of 'gags' I began to feel that my suspicions had been right all along.  Sure, the Bolton audience were lapping it up, but this just left me slightly re-assured and comforted, safe in the knowledge that I live in a place where the Fish & Chip shops don't serve Mushy Peas, and we have ready access to Cous-cous.

But then something happened to knock the bottom out of the world of North/South comedy prejudice that I had built up for the purposes of this review.  I don't know whether the gags of the first few minutes of the show were to warm up the audience, to get them in the mood, but Peter Kay 'changed gear'.  He moved seamlessly into a set of witty anecdotes, observations and stories.  While still set against this backdrop of 'Northen-ness' Kay was now satiring some of the ways and mannerisms of his up-bringing and relations (of which his Mother and Grandmother were both members of this home-town audience).  From this point on Kays set became hugely entertaining.  He continued to shift the pace of the show slightly from time to time through-out the performance, keeping both the theatre goers and the DVD audience on their toes.

As can be expected, since Peter Kay plays many of the different characters in Phoenix nights himself, Kay adopts the personas of numerous characters throughout his stand-up set.  I should stress that it is not 'Character Stand-up' of the kind that people like Steve Coogan do on stage, but more similar to the style of Eddie Izzard when he portrays the people he is talking about (sometimes holding a conversation between two people all by himself) and leaves you with a clear image in your head of what is being drawn on stage before your eyes.

Kay also structures his set very well, drawing material used earlier in his performance back into his set later comfortably and seamlessly.  This is best demonstrated towards the end of the set when he sums up and recaps much of the ideas used throughout his performance through the medium of the 1980's ITV gameshow 'Bullseye'.  (You will need to buy the DVD to understand what I am talking about at this point).

So, as many of you will be starting your Christmas shopping soon, and might be looking for a stocking filler in the form of the latest comedy DVD releases, you might now find yourself weighing up the two most current offerings from the genre:  'Peter Kay Live at Bolton Albet Halls' or 'Johnny Vegas: Who's Ready for Ice Cream'.  Our recommendation, partly because Peter Kay has made such a great comedy offering and partly because Johnny Vegas has produced such a crime against humanity,  would be to place one (or more) copies of Kays DVD in your shopping trolley (preferably while dousing all Vegas's DVDs on the display with lighter fluid and torching them to destruction).

Peter Kay Live At Bolton Albert Halls is currently available from the Funny.co.uk Comedy Shop at the special price of £18.99.  Please select the product from the menu on the right to purchase.