This stand-up special by Jimmy Carr is the first time I have not enjoyed his work. I do not mean that his jokes were not funny. On the contrary, I found much of the material to be pretty good, not his best, but pretty good. Even so, I emitted no more than a chuckle throughout the show. That is because the camera work in this is unprecedented, and not in a good way.
Every so often the camera operator would repeat a moving shot of Jimmy by coming in from the side of the stage, all in for a close-up of him talking and then continue passing all the way across in front of him, followed by circling behind him.
I found this pointless continual movement so distracting that it made me utterly lose track of the topics and not even hear what he was saying. I cannot recall ever seeing this before in any stand-up special ever, by anyone. This began early in the routine and was repeatedly used all the to the end. I found it so off-putting that the only time I laughed was when I was not actually looking at the screen.
My main emotional response was not laughter, but rather feeling bad for his audience in the theater. I wonder how they remained in a humorous mood when I can only imagine they were having their show spoiled by absurd camerawork being performed directly in their line of sight. I would love to know about why this approach was used and the chain of poor judgment that allowed it to happen. It must be utterly bizarre or tragically pathetic.
Thank you for reading this.
