Tag Archive: O2 Arena


MICHAEL McINTYRE – SHOWTIME – THE DVD

Smug and self satisfied……….moi?

Michael McIntyre thinks he’s really funny. He laughs at his own jokes as he struts the stage with a smug ‘aren’t I clever’ cheesy grin milking the applause.

I can’t pretend I was much amused although his audience in the 02 arena are filmed wetting themselves with laughter so I must be missing something.

The blurb on the box says this show was “part of a 71 date arena tour playing to over 700,000 fans”. He’s clearly struck a chord with the great British public and this is my unsophisticated ex-pat’s theory on how and why.

In a word. Safety. He makes jokes about things that most people would be able to agree with.

The rating on the box is ’15’ with the proviso: “not to be supplied to any person below that age”. This is presumably because he occasionally uses the F-word and makes a passing reference to having sex in a long-term relationship. Neither of these would be likely to offend any person above or below the age of 15 but then again the censors always err on the cautious side in these matters.

MM’s other skits include bland and obvious observations on the London Olympics, squabbling in a long-term relationship, being embarrassed by his kids, how Kindle is better than real books, how making online reservations can be tricky and occasionally frustrating, how he had bad experience of being photographed at the Baftas award ceremony and how he had quite a bad time having a wisdom tooth removed at the dentist’s.

Ha – f***ing – ha! Laugh. I nearly did!

I don’t actively seek out comics who are offensive or threatening but I do draw the line at stand-ups who are nice to the Queen and constantly see fit to remind his audience how famous they now are. MM does both and more.

Apparently he’s on the telly quite a lot in the UK and if I’m looking for reasons for being glad to be living in Italy (an increasingly big ask these days) this is most certainly one.

CELEBRATING LED ZEPPELIN

CELEBRATION DAY directed by Dick Carruthers (UK, 2012)

This two-hour concert movie was recorded at Led Zeppelin’s one-off show at London’s O2 Arena on 10th December 2007.

This was staged almost one year to the day after the death of the founder of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegun. Proceeds from the concert went to Artegun’s Education Fund which sets out to provide music scholarships to gifted children.

I arrived late for the cinema screening (“for one night only”) without pre-booking and was highly fortunate to get the last ticket. I felt almost as pumped up as if I was seeing the band in the flesh and the atmosphere in the movie house made this a memorable way to experience their timeless music.

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