DVD review: "Jason Byrne – Out Of The Box: Live!" (2006)

The audience at Dublin's Vicar Street made plenty of appreciative noise during the taping of this show, but there weren’t many laughs at my place. Things began well, with paper-bag-headed dancers trouping through a set resembling a warehouse and Byrne bursting forth from a cardboard box. It wasn't the only surreal moment as the Irishman later pulled a burly bloke from the crowd, swaddled him in a towel, and weighed him on a kitchen scale. He also hosted a game – "That's not a badger!" – in which he severely badgered the two contestants.

Therein lay the problem. Unlike other highly interactive comedians, such as Ross Noble, JB's back-and-forths are more fierce than friendly. His routines can be downright cruel. Only devotion to duty prevented me ejecting the DVD during a drawn-out impression of a pet rabbit suffocating in a shed. While there were amusing observations about sex and marriage, religious differences and useless hand gestures, they couldn't redress the balance. After the wild intro, I expected more from the finale than a headless doll and three prehistoric gags.

Final word: Lotsa people like him. I'm not convinced.

[Australian release date: out now]