I like to watch DVDs with as little information about what I'm about to see as possible. I like to avoid preconceptions and expectations and just let the material unfold before me like life does.
In this case, as soon as I put the DVD in the player, I knew I was in store for some stand-up comedy from Steve Harvey. I didn't know anything about Harvey personally. I'd seen him in at least one film, Johnson Family Vacation (2004), and I thought that was okay, but not very good. I'd never seen his stand-up. However, I usually enjoy stand-up a lot, so I was ready for a good time.
In this case, my "avoid preconceptions" strategy backfired a bit. For at least the first 10 minutes of Don't Trip, I was trying to figure out what the hell the deal was--I felt like I had stumbled into a timeshare sales pitch or multi-level marketing meeting by accident--when you know there's some ulterior motive occurring, and this isn't just a collection of more or less random people interacting in a general way.
I didn't know Harvey was religious, so the comments at the beginning of the DVD threw me off a bit, but okay, he likes to mention God at his shows. But then he kept doing religious material, which seemed very odd to me. I didn't know he was _that_ religious. And I wasn't really laughing at anything. That's a bad omen for stand-up. Yet there was this huge audience at his show. It took me awhile to figure out that this was filmed at a religious "festival" (a gospel "Megafest"), and apparently Harvey was just one of the acts.
I suppose I'm just in the wrong demographic for this. I'm not at all religious. I'm an atheist, one who doesn't mind arguing religion, and one who has actually convinced some religious folks to change their views. I prefer Anton La Vey's (the founder of the official Church of Satan) ethics to Christian ethics. I'm a hedonist. I've done things that can be interpreted as anti-mainstream-religion and pro-Satanist in my own artwork (even though it's not meant quite that simply). To me, religions basically amount to mythology and superstition (and I think it's fun to interact with mythology in various ways).
On the other hand, I like experiencing everything, and that includes religious films and religious music. I loved The Work and the Glory (2004). I thought The Second Chance (2006) was very good (and I love Steve Taylor's music, by the way). I thought The Last Sin Eater (2007) was okay. I thought people were unduly harsh on The Gospel (2005), which I thought was a pretty good film. I love all kinds of gospel music--The Winans, Mahalia Jackson, The Staple Singers, Aretha Franklin's gospel, The Carter Family and Johnny Cash's gospel, Dr. Charles G. Hayes--I don't think there's any gospel I do not like. So it's not as if I won't like something just because it's religious.
But I just didn't find most of Don't Trip funny. There were some parts that made me chuckle. And a couple times, when Harvey got serious, I thought he had something valuable to say (such as the speech about not discouraging your children's ambitions). Unfortunately, just as often, Harvey came across to me as something of a jerk. But maybe he was just trying to be funny. I don't know. The people in the huge audience (about 16,000) sure seemed to find him hilarious--at least given the way the audience reaction shots were edited into the film.
In this case, as soon as I put the DVD in the player, I knew I was in store for some stand-up comedy from Steve Harvey. I didn't know anything about Harvey personally. I'd seen him in at least one film, Johnson Family Vacation (2004), and I thought that was okay, but not very good. I'd never seen his stand-up. However, I usually enjoy stand-up a lot, so I was ready for a good time.
In this case, my "avoid preconceptions" strategy backfired a bit. For at least the first 10 minutes of Don't Trip, I was trying to figure out what the hell the deal was--I felt like I had stumbled into a timeshare sales pitch or multi-level marketing meeting by accident--when you know there's some ulterior motive occurring, and this isn't just a collection of more or less random people interacting in a general way.
I didn't know Harvey was religious, so the comments at the beginning of the DVD threw me off a bit, but okay, he likes to mention God at his shows. But then he kept doing religious material, which seemed very odd to me. I didn't know he was _that_ religious. And I wasn't really laughing at anything. That's a bad omen for stand-up. Yet there was this huge audience at his show. It took me awhile to figure out that this was filmed at a religious "festival" (a gospel "Megafest"), and apparently Harvey was just one of the acts.
I suppose I'm just in the wrong demographic for this. I'm not at all religious. I'm an atheist, one who doesn't mind arguing religion, and one who has actually convinced some religious folks to change their views. I prefer Anton La Vey's (the founder of the official Church of Satan) ethics to Christian ethics. I'm a hedonist. I've done things that can be interpreted as anti-mainstream-religion and pro-Satanist in my own artwork (even though it's not meant quite that simply). To me, religions basically amount to mythology and superstition (and I think it's fun to interact with mythology in various ways).
On the other hand, I like experiencing everything, and that includes religious films and religious music. I loved The Work and the Glory (2004). I thought The Second Chance (2006) was very good (and I love Steve Taylor's music, by the way). I thought The Last Sin Eater (2007) was okay. I thought people were unduly harsh on The Gospel (2005), which I thought was a pretty good film. I love all kinds of gospel music--The Winans, Mahalia Jackson, The Staple Singers, Aretha Franklin's gospel, The Carter Family and Johnny Cash's gospel, Dr. Charles G. Hayes--I don't think there's any gospel I do not like. So it's not as if I won't like something just because it's religious.
But I just didn't find most of Don't Trip funny. There were some parts that made me chuckle. And a couple times, when Harvey got serious, I thought he had something valuable to say (such as the speech about not discouraging your children's ambitions). Unfortunately, just as often, Harvey came across to me as something of a jerk. But maybe he was just trying to be funny. I don't know. The people in the huge audience (about 16,000) sure seemed to find him hilarious--at least given the way the audience reaction shots were edited into the film.