Demetri Martin. Person DVD Credits:

Region: 1

Demetri Martin. Person DVD Release Date: 3rd September 2007

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Demetri Martin. Person DVD Review:

There is no doubt that Demetri Martin is a highly creative and intuitive individual. His unique brand of multimedia absurdist comedy is admirable in its relentlessness and unexpected material. Martin presents a fantastic DVD experience in the debut of his hour long Comedy Central special. Martin employs a number of devices to tell his jokes, all while maintaining an awkwardly stoic demeanor. However past the drawings, the Bob Dylan harmonica-guitar act, and the costumed set pieces, the jokes tend to be cute rather than laugh out loud funny.

Martin’s comedy consists of stream of consciousness one liners that are completely unrelated and more often than not, mildly amusing. Martin uses a drawing pad that he aptly named “Large Pad” to display some of his better jokes. The visual element definitely enhances the humor as the drawings are charming in their childlike execution. The drawings include a graph of how funny farts are by location and various non sequiturs usually involving awkward animals. Also drawn by Martin are a couple two minute animated interludes (Martin’s musings on porcupines and a fictitious expert on mythological creatures) that fall between Martin’s set changes. These interludes represent exactly what’s off about Martin’s comedy. They are entertaining yet instead of inspiring laughs they mainly just fall in the category of being cute.

Martin’s act also suffers from his juggling of creative devices. He plays the piano, harmonica, bells, and the guitar while trying to deliver jokes. Many comedians such as Stephen Lynch succeed in pairing music with comedy; Martin is not so lucky. The whole thing doesn’t mesh well as the jokes don’t benefit from the musical element and Martin isn’t very proficient in playing the instruments. Martin ends the special with a set piece including his friends and members of his family wearing costumes that belong in a child’s garage production. The finale is certainly admirable, but once again fails to inhibit laughter.

While the actual feature may fall flat the DVD extra’s are numerous and fantastic. It is obvious that Martin was heavily involved in the production as the DVD menu itself exudes his offbeat personality (One section is labeled “Nothing” and it leads to exactly that). Martin includes various short sequences including more obscure mythological creatures, “Creep Eating an Ice Cream Pop”, failed set design ideas, and a short interview. Even more entertaining are the previous stand up performances featured on the DVD. There are three five minute clips from Martin’s comedy club exploits, and Martin’s Comedy Central half hour debut. It is discouraging to see that Martin’s past efforts prove to be funnier than the actual feature. This is most likely due to the absence of the song and dance element of the special. There is a commentary on the performance that includes Martin’s sister, uncles, and grandmother. The commentary actually enhances the viewing experience and Martin’s grandmother provides many unintentional laughs. Overall the quality DVD extras outshine the rather lame main feature.

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Demetri Martin. Person DVD review written by: Tyler Lumm