I'll be honest: Before I was assigned this disc for review, I'd never heard of comedian Daniel Tosh in my life. Now that I've spent an hour enduring his stand-up on the new concert disc Daniel Tosh: Completely Serious (filmed in Oct. 2006), I can see why he's unknown to me. A smarmy, exceedingly self-deprecating comic in the mold of Kevin Nealon, Tosh's dry, occasionally biting humor wears thin quickly. The tall, rangy funnyman keeps the show moving, but I found myself glancing at my watch frequently -- never a good sign with stand-up.

Tosh's selection of material -- mostly observational humor with a few shocking non sequiturs sprinkled about for good measure -- isn't necessarily bad, but there's just something about his onstage demeanor that makes the whole presentation kind of colorless. There's no real personality to latch onto and his penchant for narrating the obvious gets very old very quickly. The downside is that you can tell Tosh is somewhat appealing -- the back of the DVD case touts his 10-million selling debut album "True Stories I Made Up" and he's apparently been a guest on both Leno and Letterman a few times -- but damned if I can figure out to whom or why he's funny.

All that said, Daniel Tosh: Completely Serious is the sort of well-thought out, carefully packaged release you often see from mid-level comics looking to take that next step in the business. It's sporadically amusing (perhaps not exactly my cup of tea, so take that with a grain of salt) but a handsomely mounted showcase for a comic who, though little-known, apparently has the drive to become a household name.

The Video:

Presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, Daniel Tosh: Completely Serious is dogged a bit by softness throughout, as well as some digital edginess that mars a few motion shots. It's not persistent, but crops often enough that it may distract some attentive viewers.

The provided Dolby Digital 5.1 track is more than up to handling an hour of stand-up -- dialogue is heard clearly and cleanly throughout with not a single defect. A Dolby 2.0 track is also included.

A few supplements, none of which really explain who Tosh is, are on hand: a one minute, 14 second featurette details the photo shoot that led to the DVD cover; a protracted seven minute, nine second featurette follows Tosh as he interviews some fans and five deleted scenes (ranging in length from 42 seconds to almost three minutes) round out the disc.

Daniel Tosh: Completely Serious is the sort of well-thought out, carefully packaged release you often see from mid-level comics looking to take that next step in the business. It's sporadically amusing (perhaps not exactly my cup of tea, so take that with a grain of salt) but a handsomely mounted showcase for a comic who, though little-known, apparently has the drive to become a household name. Rent it.