DVD Review: Daniel Sloss Live
Published: Monday 17th December 2012
Now an ancient 22, Daniel Sloss is making a decent fist of killing that old adage about comedians not really getting good until they're over 40, several times divorced and a survivor of umpteen addictions, experience being the key in the game.
The Fife-bred comic is now five years into a prodigious career and has a solid canon of material already in the bag, the best 70 minutes of which has now been captured for posterity on this debut DVD. The still-struggling circuit veterans must resent him like one of their alimony-entitled ex-wives.
Filmed at Glasgow's Kings Theatre (two live shows edited together, we find out on the revealing extras), this is a confident, cleverly-worked performance, particularly when it comes to that tricky issue: whether to do your best-known bits on the DVD, despite everyone who might potentially buy it having almost certainly already seen them on the telly. Sloss solves this awkward dilemma by elaborating on the original routine - his popular shaving bit, for example - with an equally worthwhile follow-up story, which necessitates the telling of the original gag again but without it being painfully shoehorned in. A nice use of comedy nous.
Of course, he's far from the finished article yet, and that youthfulness can occasionally jar, given the air of authority we demand from our stand-ups. Personally I found it a bit hard to relate to a chap talking about going on holiday with his parents, for example, while his swearing has all the impact of hearing teenage tosspots showing off on a bus. But then a fair percentage of those asking for this DVD for Christmas probably still do it via a note to Santa, so it's a moot point.
Also well worth a watch is the commentary, which sees Sloss, his best mate Ally Hogg and two fellow comics, Kai Humphries and Mark Nelson, sitting in someone's front room with the DVD on and rambling away over the top. It's thoroughly entertaining seeing the star of the show being mercilessly roasted (by the splendidly dry Nelson in particular), while some interesting behind-the-scenes titbits also emerge: background stories for certain gags, the ups and downs of the tour as a whole and some pleasingly candid bitching.
And no doubt that's the only word from this review they'll use on the poster: "Bitching! (British Comedy Guide)" They wouldn't be too far wrong.
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