Andy Parsons: Gruntled DVD

Review by Bernard O'Leary | 14 Nov 2011

Oh, that voice.

There are people in the world who watch Mock The Week with the subtitles on, just so they don’t have to hear that voice, which always sounds like it’s reporting on the latest action from Torquay V Hereford United. For those people, a whole DVD of Andy Parsons might be too much for their poor ears.

If you get past that, then what you get is two shows for price of one. Around half of Gruntled is topical stand-up  done with roughly the same level of success as on Mock The Week, so if you like that then you’re quids in. The second strand is sit-down anecdotal comedy and Parsons has a stool where he perches, Westlife-like, to talks about his past. We learn that the nasal twang in his voice is due to a childhood medical condition (great, now I feel guilty) and comedy was his way of overcoming shyness. There are actually some great stories in this section and it works better than Nick Clegg jokes.

Ultimately, Gruntled is fine. There’s nothing bad about it, it’s just achingly average and too often Parsons relies on stating the bleeding obvious in a sarcastic voice, rather than actual jokes. You could buy it, or you could just wait until it’s repeated on Dave.

 

Andy Parsons: Gruntled DVD is on sale from 14 Nov, RRP £19.99