You’ve got to hand it to this “Robin Williams� guy. Only around 20 years ago he popped down to Earth from another planet completely oblivious of our many unique human quirks, watched us for a while, learned more swear words than boring old “shazbot�, changed his name from the rather noticeable “Mork� to something quite a bit more camouflaged and then carved out a remarkably successful career in stand-up, observational comedy (oh, and generally cruddy movies). Respect!

After spending a substantial amount of his time concentrating on those generally cruddy movies, 2002 saw Robin Williams return to the place where he cut his comic teeth – doing it on stage in front of an audience. Live on Broadway is taken from the New York f*ckin’ New York finale to his 26 show US tour and sees him as typically manic as a humanoid pinball and right-on-the-button hilarious as ever. Armed only with his wit and enough bottled water to keep the punters of your average rave party DOOFing on merrily into the early hours, it all went to air live and unedited, which is what we get in this 99 minute show – so all the flubs (and their brilliant saves) are here, as well as an unrelenting, no-taboo-is-sacred, rapid-fire stream of gags covering most everything you could name from world events, politics, religion, sport (and golf) and, of course, sex. Oh, and his Tourette’s Syndrome-like pottymouthedness is very much in evidence – this is, after all, an HBO special.

It’s about bloody time more of these American networks got with the fact that it’s the noughties, and TV stuff should be made in 1.78:1, for as much as this is only a few months old at the time of clacking about it on the old keyboard, it’s resolutely boring old full frame. Still, the picture is gorgeously crisp – so much so that every bead of sweat and every hair (and there are lots of them) on this wonderful blue-eyed simian are easily discernable. Actually, that’s kind of ewwy when you think about it more. Speaking of ewwy things, the layer change is a shocker – but in defence of whoever plopped it where it is, it’s kind of hard to find a quiet second through the entirety of this show, so we’ll move on.

Meanwhile, two sound mixes are provided – Linear PCM and Dolby Digital 5.1. The latter isn’t exactly utilised to its full capabilities, but that’s kind of a “duh!� statement as we’re talking about one bloke up on stage chatting. Audience noise emanates from behind on occasions, and really the only evidence that the subwoofwoof hasn’t nicked off to the canine boozer is in the finale music, courtesy of Mr Bob Marley (which is naturally not live). Anyway, you can’t lose with either audio option, as both deliver Robin’s frenzied verbal surges with remarkable clarity.

A few extras are here to munch on, the most substantial of which is an 18-minute interview featuring an après-show chat between Robin and director Marty Callner filmed especially for this DVD. It starts a little dry, but Robin is very soon “on� and it gets funnier by the minute – oh, it also offers a bit of insight into the whole production. A brief (2:38) featurette is also included, featuring Robin actually looking vaguely nervous backstage right up until bounding on stage for the show. Finally, there’s another featurette (for want of a better description) entitled Noises, which is a rapid-cut 2:30 collage of the many intriguing sounds which emanate from Robin’s throat throughout the performance. Oh, there’s also a very easy to find Easter egg which is quite similar to Noises, except it cobbles together all the naughty widdle words Robin gushes during the show. The running time is approximately four hours and 22 minutes... (kidding!)

If you’re into Robin Williams’ over-the-top style of comedy then the fabulously presented Live on Broadway will have you wishing you’d used the waterproof mascara, as he indefatigably grabs political correctness by the scruff of its weedy little neck, shakes it about a few times, throws it on the stage, stomps on it, picks it up, brushes it off, dances around with it a bit, sweet-talks it to give it a false sense of security then delivers a knockout blow between its beady little eyes. Oh, and to be honest he probably wees on it a little, too...