Darren Frost – Laughing Away The Tears

Laughing Away The Tears
2 DVDs
Appx. 3 hours total

I received Laughing Away The Tears, the two comedy DVD independent release by Darren Frost with an equal mixture of joy and fear. Joy because Frost is a great stand-up comic who is so beyond the edge whatever is left of Sam Kinison is rolling in its grave. Fear because this is an in your face, no holds barred comedian and listening to his comedy, or in this case watching his show, is such a jolt to the system it becomes physically exhausting. Add to the exhaustion factor the fact Laughing Away The Tears is an hour-long show and the DVDs total some 3 hours worth of material and you can understand my conundrum.

The first DVD in Laughing Away The Tears is Frost’s hour-long late night show at Yuk Yuk’s in Ottawa and this is a brilliant, high-energy show. It proves beyond a doubt you should show up very early for this comic’s show and make sure you sit way in the back. Otherwise, you are definitely going to be a target for his highly aggressive humor. To be fair though, Frost is as hard on himself as he is on some poor audience member.

It is no accident that at times Darren Frost holds the mic like a heavy metal singer. Just when you think there is no way this stand-up comedian can get any crazier and crank up his energy level he does just that. The best moments of the great moments on this stand-up comedy DVD are when he decides to deliver a series of one-liners in a machine-gun style that makes it hard for the audience to catch its breath. Thankfully, Frost does occasionally pause here and there both for his own and the audience’s sake. Be warned though this is only a sign there is much, much more to come

If there is a weak point here it is the penultimate joke in this set. The raccoon bit does not fly. Fortunately, Frost has the experience to close with a killer bit.

Laughing Away The Tears is the comedy DVD I am keeping on hand to win the debate on who is the most outrageous comic out there.

Bonus Features on the first DVD in Laughing Away The Fear are four excerpts from other shows across the country: Too Far, Whatever -an  15 minute interview with a drunk lady who complains about Frost’s set in BC of minor interest–, Rivoli Bedsheets, and 2 Minutes of Hate.

The second DVD is chock full of bonuses from Frost’s website. The Leather Chef features Frost in a leather outfit with two babes giving the kind of cooking show Julia Childs only wishes she could have. Tears of Rage is a selection of 21 short black and white clips of the stand-up comic doing some of his best and weirdest material, a lot of which is not in the hour-long show. Niagara Story is an interview bit where he tells the story of how he once took it all off on stage. The message here is do not try to one-up Darren Frost.

There are also 8 clips in the Comedy Shorts section. These include a couple of parodies of the Cops show, a clip about the beer fairy, a clip spoofing a beer website. Perhaps the weirdest of the weird is Gutterball Alley where a young lady gets 5 dollars for every marshmallow Frost feeds her … you got to see it to believe it. Also included are Freak In A Box a short about a bizarre elevator operator,  There is also a spoof of AA groups and a clip from the Mike Bullard Show that is not bad.

In addition to all the goodies mentioned before, the second DVD includes material about the rock group The Headstones Frost is a big fan of. The weirdest is the rock video featuring the comic as Rupert P an excessive fan of the group. If you want to see Frost’s naked butt -and who does? — check out the Electronic Press Kit bit. There are two other videos in this section. Overall, this is the weak part of this second disc for me. The acting reel is a series of shorts that are fun to watch.

Darren Frost Laughing Away The Tears is a must have 2 comedy DVD set for anyone who believes comedy is for adults with an open mind.  This is a high-quality, big-time studio production. The picture quality and sound for the stand-up show is flawless as is most everything in the extras section. You also definitely want to check out this stand-up comic’s website, one of the best I have seen in a while.

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