Image Entertainment has released the Bob & Tom Comedy All-Stars Tour DVD, a 70-minute compilation of a live 2006 show performed at the Paramount Theater in Anderson, Indiana. I catch The Bob & Tom Show occasionally, so a few of the stand-up comedians featured here were familiar to me. Whether or not you actually want to go ahead and purchase this amusing but unspectacular DVD is probably entirely dependent on whether or not one or more of these comedians is a personal favorite of yours. All in all, a rental would have sufficed for me.

The Bob & Tom Show, a nationally syndicated morning radio program, is, I understand, one of the most popular shows on the radio dial. While I find the hosts, Bob and Tom, tedious in the extreme, their sidekick Chick McGee is actually quite brilliant both in his content and manner of delivery. And I also enjoy the canned skits that play (such as Mr. Obvious), as well as the set-up phone calls (Steve Salge's Larry King is hilarious, and Ron Sexton's Donnie Baker and especially the obnoxious Kenny Tarmac, are brilliant parodies).

Of course, one of the hallmarks of the show is the parade of stand-up comedians who regularly sit down with the crew and do their shtick. Five guests of the show are gathered here in the Bob & Tom Comedy All-Stars Tour, with Bob and Tom making a (thankfully) brief appearance at the beginning and end of the show. Writing about comedy concert DVDs is a fairly worthless proposition. After all, it's a performance of just the comedian, standing up on a bare stage, telling jokes. How do you convey to the reader what is funny or not about the performances? You can repeat the jokes, but that's a poor way to get across what made the joke funny in the first place. And frankly, who cares about the social or political context of the joke? Funny is funny, regardless of the context (I fear I'm starting to sound like Alan Alda in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors: "If it bends, it's funny!"). I guess the real trick is watching a disc like Bob & Tom Comedy All-Stars Tour alone, and seeing if anything makes you laugh out loud. It's easy to laugh with friends or in a group at a club, but if something can make you laugh in your office, on your own, there's a good chance it will kill with a group.

So, is Bob & Tom Comedy All-Stars Tour worth your time? Well, I found it funny, if generic in its reach. Only one comic, Nick Griffin, really impressed me with his routine; two others, Mike Birbiglia and Ralph Harris, were funny but forgettable; and the other two, David Crowe and Greg Warren, failed to make much of an impression. David Crowe, with his emphasis on silly voices (to little effect) and tired subjects (come on: smoking?), kept me largely silent. Greg Warren had a couple of funny bits ("Flutie Flute, Greg" is probably the best known from constant replaying on the radio show), but he's not exactly a dynamic personality on the stage (in fact, he frequently looks like a serial killer, staring down at his mike, unmoving, as he goes through his act). Mike Birbiglia was good, if affected, with that fake, wide-eyed stare and mumbling, trailing off delivery of his lines that seems lifted and altered from Steven Wright. His timing seemed off at the start, but he finished strong (I particularly liked the bit where he's trying to wash his face/hair/teeth with the hotel "shampaste").

Ralph Harris was animated and energetic, with a set that held familiar material (terrorists and girlfriends- same difference), but which was delivered in a fast, funny manner. His bit about his girlfriend berating him and his response "I'm standing here waiting for you to tell me where to go next," was strong. Only Nick Griffin's set, batting third in the line-up, really connected with me. I've never seen him before, but his alternating gravel-voice/whisper/whine delivery perfectly fit his dead-pan, pessimistic humor. He had a killer set, doing a bit about hitting on homeless women when he was drunk ("Who wants a big bag of cans?") and how he can be taken for "slow" when wearing the wrong kinds of clothes (his impersonation of a slow kid, asking, "Can I meet the team?" with a twisted face, only to be told, "You already have, Billy," is priceless), were worth backing up and rewatching a couple of times. Out of all the comics gathered here, he's somebody that I would actually go see in a comedy club, or watch on another DVD.

As for the DVD itself, it looks like a thousand other filmed concerts you've seen: a stage, the comic, and the camera hitting him from a full shot, to a medium shot. It's rock-solid basic. It also abuses the one convention I hate more than anything when it comes to generic filmed concert shows: the insert shot of a laughing audience member. The moronic equivalent of the sitcom laugh track, the audience shot is truly heinous. What, I'm an idiot and I need proof that what I'm watching is actually funny? Okay, that dolt thinks this is funny, so...it must be? Unfortunately, it seems to be a convention of filmed concerts that will never go away, so....

The DVD:

The Video:
The anamorphically enhanced, 1.78 widescreen video image for Bob & Tom Comedy All-Stars Tour is quite clear and sharp, with good color.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround mix is way more mix than is usually seen for this kind of words-only presentation. There's also a standard 2.0 stereo mix available.

The Extras:
There's a brief back-stage montage of the hosts interacting with the comedians, which is basically useless without any context.

Final Thoughts:
I don't own any comedy concert DVDs (the closest I have is the original Pee Wee Herman live-show he had with Phil Hartman, prior to his TV series). It just seems like a format that lends itself to one viewing at the most. However, if you're a big fan of any of these comedians, I suppose you're going to want to buy this. Not being really up on any of these comedians, I still enjoyed Bob & Tom Comedy All-Stars Tour, but I suggest a rental first, before buying.