Posted on: September 18, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Finesse Mitchell – Snap-Famous / 2007 Image / 52 Minutes / http://www.finessemitchell.com / http://www.image-entertainment.com /

Finesse Mitchell was on Saturday Night Live for a little bit. After that, my knowledge about the comedian decreased to effectively zero. Apparently, ey was doing the comedy circuits as popular knowledge decreased. However, there is not a complete break with the past during “Snap Famous”. Mitchell describes in (often-times) hilarious detail about eir time on the cast of Saturday Night Live, which becomes particularly interesting when ey name-drops Halle Barry, Prince, and even sort-of stars like Jennifer Aniston. Still, the entirety of this DVD is something that is similar to the “Premium Blend” episodes on Comedy Central, or (and this is pushing it) a comedian’s HBO special. The style of comedy used by Mitchell is middle of the road, not really the “edgy” comedy of individuals or troupes like Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show, David Cross, or Reno 911 but rather falls into the BET / Def Comedy Jam sphere of things.

The topics broached are those that have been covered before, and while individuals will be able to laugh throughout the entirety of the special, there is nothing that hasn’t been touched on a Jamie Foxx or Chris Rock special from the past. There are a few other things that individuals can see on this DVD; the bonuses include a “Cribs” segment and “Streets of New York”. This means that there is a little more for your $15 than merely an hour-long special, but I’m concerned about how many times individuals would be able to replay the same skit, same jokes, same inflection that Finesse has on this DVD. When comparing the fact that this is a video to the tendency of comedians to issue their material on purely audio recordings, “Snap Famous” succeeds in providing viewers more nuance than any of the audio-only recordings. The gestures that Mitchell uses during different skits are integral to the success or failure of eir jokes, and if “Snap Famous” was only an audio album, this nuance would not be present.

The video quality is easily at the level that any major special has; individuals need not worry about grainy footage or poor audio. For those individuals that might not want to push the boundaries of thought in comedy, Mitchell’s “Snap Famous” would be a smart purchase. If individuals are already disenchanted with how much they are challenged as viewers of mainstream comedians, then “Snap Famous” may not be the smartest purchase. Still, there are a number of funny skits and even the most dour individuals will be able to chuckle at a few of the skits that Mitchell comes up with. It will be interesting to see how Mitchell expands eir repertoire in the next few years, especially as the fame given eir by the SNL tag decreases and ey has to really prove eirself to fans throughout all of the United States. Give it a go if you can find it for a few bucks off of retail, or if you saw Mitchell in the past and really appreciated all that ey did.

Rating: 5.0/10

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