Richard Sandling in VHS 3: Video Nasty
Running the VHS only video library Ace Video and his love of the format formed the basis of Richard Sandling’s show VHS 3: Video Nasty. Using a great deal of strongly held personal opinions he set out to extoll the virtues of the format to the world.
Richard is clearly passionate about video and he presented many facts, figures and opinions about it. Not all of them were hilarious but proved to be entertaining and interesting. He stated at several times that there were only a handful of actual jokes in the show. Depending on your knowledge of low/no budget direct to video titles of the eighties, you may have found additional lines to chuckle at.
After a considerable portion of the show spent explaining his passion for VHS, he moved on to other topics. Although he himself described the show as ‘a fat man talking about videos for an hour’, this material was only vaguely related to the show’s theme. This smelt of filler but was all laid out in the advertising so we were forewarned. The need for a day job in the face of low trade at Ace Video led Richard into stories about the people he worked with that were general observational jokes. His stories about terrible gigs he had performed manage to link to his somewhat geeky obsessions (misreading the crowd at a SciFi Convention) but seemed to be an excuse for the telling of some questionable jokes.
Being a show about videos, it was disappointing that there was a minimal audio visual element to this show. He showed a handful of video covers that were barely visible from the back of the room and introductory music featuring movie sound bites. The addition of something as low tech as a snowy TV set would have added to the show immensely. Richard did manage to make up for this shortfall somewhat in his delivery of the words that kept the punters enthralled and chuckling. He may have looked like a large scary man on the flyer, but in the flesh he was personable, enthusiastic and friendly.
Although not quite the exploration of video culture I was expecting, _VHS 3 was a funny, entertaining and informative show.
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