The Comedy Vault – Tim Vine Live.

I first time I remember seeing the comedian Tim Vine on TV was when I saw him host a short-lived BBC1 daytime game show called Housemates in 1995. I just really liked the silly jokes that he made right from the first time that I saw him and I have tried to follow his career ever since. I remember that he was also someone who wasn’t too embarrassed about appearing on Channel 5 in its earliest days including co-hosting the first-ever programme and the weekday game show Whittle, and even having a comedy Christmas special in 1997.

After that Tim teamed up with Lee Mack in the comedy shows The Sketch Show and Not Going Out, and he has also on to appeared on lots more game shows as either a host or a panellist, always being great value when he is in Dictionary Corner on Countdown, and he has toured the country doing his award-winning comedy stage show. So when his stand-up act was released on DVD for the first time in 2004, there wasn’t any hesitation from me in buying it. There have now been four Tim Vine Live shows released on DVD.

There are lots of great moments on these DVDs. In the first one (which also boasts that Tim holds the world record for the most jokes in an hour) Tim has lots of props on standby to help tell his fantastically daft jokes, and also at the end he decides to whip his guitar out and perform a song about how he used to have a box that gets everyone giggling. There are also some interesting DVD extras including footage of some of Tim’s earliest stand-up performances. 

The second DVD was called So I Said To This Bloke… which seemingly was recorded in front of a larger crowd and featured lots more jokes, plus the added excitement of the incredible Pen Behind The Ear challenge which had everyone on the edge of their seats, and also Tim’s friend Flag Hippo who once again had them rolling around, and lots more DVD extras. 

The third DVD The Punslinger featured Tim doing his thing once again but this time dressed as a cowboy, and informing the lively crowd about many things like his squeaky shoes and still being on top form. Again there were lots of DVD extras including Tim telling us about his love of darts and some odd sketches. 

The fourth DVD The Joke-Amotive had Tim continuing with yet more fabulous jokes but now with a train setting so everyone was pleased to be on board and witness the crazy antics, along with yet more DVD extras featuring even more jokes, how do they fit them all on the disc? They must all be really pleased with him back home in Cheam. 

As well as this, Tim has also released a couple of joke books that are up to standard and also a few of these DVDs have been shown on various TV channels including ITV4. It seems that Tim isn’t doing a DVD this year but I hope that there will be more soon because he is definitely one of my favourite comedians and I hope there will be more to come from him because it’s always a pleasure even 20 years on to enter his wonderfully silly world. Oh, and did you know that Jeremy Vine is his brother?