The Story:
Okay, let me start off by assuring you that Cedric does indeed do some performing on this DVD. He has an opening monologue of about fifteen minutes, and in between each unknown performer, he puts in anywhere from 5-8 more minutes of his own comedy. And he's a pretty funny guy—but he definitely has some competition with his choice of newbies!

First up was Roland Powell, and he was a funny guy…but be warned, he was one of those comedians who injects some singing into his act, so if you're not into that kind of thing…. Still and all, even that was funny. He reminded me of a bad version of D'Angelo when singing.

Second, was Juan Villareal. He started off shaky, but got funnier. I just got sort of annoyed at his constant clarification of "blacks and Mexicans" as compared to whites—I just don't see the need to constantly lump black and Mexicans together to prove a point. It was sort of odd, as if he was always assuring the mostly African-American audience that he was able to relate to them.

Tony Luewellyn was third, and he was again, funny. He injected some impersonations of famous people. You always need to have at least one comedian who uses that technique, right?

And finally, there was J.J. That's it, just J.J. And he also held his own in the funny department.

Each comedian was given about ten minutes on stage. The foursome and Cedric's routines were definitely entertaining, if not the most memorable performances I've ever seen. There were some references made by just about every comedian that were just not timely—they were dated, and some of them came across as inappropriate considering some of the latest developments in current events, which made for a bizarre experience of reminding myself that things were different when the jokes were being made. But the more annoying aspect of the feature was an apparent attempt at a boxing theme. It just didn't carry through. At the entrance on stage of each new comedian, a little "sports" commentator would show at the bottom right of the screen and say stuff I didn't really feel the need to pay attention to, since it wasn't humorous in the least—it was all babble. Cedric announced each comedian with a mike that dropped from the ceiling. And the stage was setup like a boxing ring. And it seems there were supposed to be sketches in between featuring Cedric giving each comedian a pep talk from his corner of the ring, but that didn't pan out—it happened only once, and seemed like it was an accident that cut right into the middle of the first comedian's act. Seems like a case of really bad editing. All the other similar clips with the three remaining comedians ended up in the bonus material. As for the four up and coming comedians, I don't know if any of them ever went anywhere in the few years since this was filmed, because I didn't recognize any of them.

The DVD

Video:
This feature is presented in full screen format, standard 4:3 aspect ratio. The color and picture quality are both vibrant and sharp. But the editing was terrible. There wasn't good flow, and half the time, when one comedian's routine was finished, it would just cut right to Cedric performing, and sounding like he was in the midst of his routine already. And then, as I mentioned before, there was that anomaly of the boxing sketch just cutting into one of the performances. I wasn't particularly fond of the fact that the main menu included sound bites of jokes from the show itself.

Sound:
The film is presented in Dolby 2.0 stereo, and the 2-channel stereo was well-mixed. No complaints here.

Extras:
Pretty bland lineup here. There were 9 trailers of other comedians with releases in this "platinum comedy series". The extra footage included the clips of the comedians as sports commentators, and the boxing ring sketches that were mostly cut (rightfully so) from the final product. And there was one bizarre final sketch of Cedric face to face with a gang. None of this material was funny, nor did it seem well thought out or planned. It just wasn't entertaining and not worth even watching.

Final Thoughts:
Cedric the Entertainer—Standing Lineup is an introduction to four fresh young comedians. Each of them was funny, but didn't have much time to even get warmed up. But you will laugh at what little taste you get of each. Plus, you get Cedric performing his own act in between the clips of each of the newbies. I was never really howling with laughter, but I did get a good chuckle now and then.