Walking Down The Street is Carl Barron’s third DVD release. He toured this identically titled show around Australia in 2008 and this particular performance was filmed at Sydney’s State Theatre before a delighted audience.
The show is basically Carl on stage relaying his well honed brand of observational humour. He has the wonderful ability of making his scripted material look like he is uttering the words for the first time and his laid back larrikin delivery give them a very Aussie twist. Add his often hyperactive gestures, wide eyed wonderful vocal mimickry and his unique “vocal stylings” when strumming the guitar or tinkling the ivories, and you have a highly entertaining 83 minutes.
Apart from some establishing shots of the theatre and audience at the start of the show, the cameras were aimed squarely at Carl for the duration, even during his spots of audience interaction. I found this a refreshing approach as constant shots of the audience laughing are usually overdone anyway.
The multiple camera operators certainly had their work cut out for them with Carl constantly on the move during his performance and they did a brilliant job in capturing all the action. An interesting addition to the wide shots and close ups were the numerous views of the show from the nosebleed section. This provided a subtle reminder of the scale of the audience in contrast to the main shots that gave the show a more intimate feel to the DVD viewer, putting them in a seat front row and centre.
The menu system of the disc was cleanly laid out and added to the spirit of the stage performance with some looped examples of Carl mucking around. The DVD offers only stereo sound but that is all that is needed to enjoy Carl. There are no subtitles except for one to capture a mumbled comment from his dad in a featurette which wasn’t particularly necessary.
The extras included on the disc were just as entertaining as the show itself. The encore of the Sydney performance was located here as well as a short excerpt from a Bendigo show. A collection of clips whetted our interest for a forthcoming documentary about Carl and his father by showing us a trip made by the pair to Carl’s birthplace of Longreach. Carl’s first appearance on Thank God You’re Here is here and a vox pop segment showed Carl trying to get Welsh people to accurately say “How’s it garn?” My favorite extra was Carl’s demonstration of his brilliant character work, this time in the form of “Ashley Boomington”. Ashley appears in a silly parody of arty avant-garde films as well as in a menu item and an introduction to the main show when you launch it from the main menu.
This DVD is a brilliant document of Carl’s act and is sure to please the fans and convert plenty of new ones.
Walking Down the street is released by Beyond Home Entertainment and is available at retailers throughout Australia including Punchline. Carl’s first DVD is now available in Europe at retailers including Amazon, Play.com Norway and Proxis